4 charged in COVID unemployment fraud

Four Chester County residents, some of them inmates at Chester County Prison, were charged by federal authorities for attempting to fraudulently obtain benefits related to COVID-19 emergency relief funds to which they were not entitled.

Arrested were Jennifer D’Hulster, 37, of Coatesville, Zachary Gathercole, 30, of Sadsburyville,

Ashley Harrington, 30, of West Chester, and Anthony Schweitzer, 20, of Coatesville. Gathercole, Harrington and Schweitzer were already incarcerated when charges were filed. If convicted, they face 60 years in jail.

According to a complaint filed by United States Attorney William M. McSwain, Harrington enabled Gathercole, who was incarcerated at Chester County Prison prior to the onset of the pandemic, to receive approximately $12,865 in unemployment compensation funds.

D’Hulster and Gathercole enabled another unidentified inmate to receive approximately $11,410 and attempted to obtain Pennsylvania unemployment assistance benefits for another inmate. Schweitzer did not actually receive any PUA benefits, but attempted to several times, Swain said. The inmates were not eligible to receive PUA benefits because they did not meet the eligibility requirements of being able to report to a job each day because of their incarceration.

“Sadly, fraudsters consider a national public health crisis as an opportunity to cash in,” said McSwain. “That callous attitude rips off honest taxpayers who fund relief programs and also makes it much more difficult to provide funds to those who deserve and need them. My Office will do everything in its power to ensure that coronavirus fraud scams are stopped and punished.”

The case against D’Hulster, Harrington, Gathercole, and Schweitzer,

comes just one week after U.S. Attorney Scott Brady and Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced charges against 33 people - including eight inmates - involved in similar schemes at state prisons in counties in western Pennsylvania.

State officials recently found the names of an additional 10,000 state prison inmates on Pennsylvania’s unemployment rolls. But it’s still unclear whether those people were aware that jobless

claims had been filed on their behalf, Shapiro said last month. The fraud was uncovered by U.S. postal inspectors, who notices a large volume of mail arriving at homes that are abandoned or being sold.

“Unemployment insurance fraud has risen sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic, and investigating these types of schemes remains a priority for the Office of Inspector General,” said Derek Pickle, acting special agent in charge for the Philadelphia Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. “We will

continue to work with our law enforcement partners to aggressively pursue allegations of criminal conduct against the Unemployment Insurance program.”

“At the end of March 2020, the United States Government invested billions of dollars in helping its citizens through the pandemic,” said Postal Inspector in Charge Damon Wood. “From the beginning, Postal Inspectors in Philadelphia, and across the country, have worked to do our part in ensuring that those investments in the American public do not fall into the hands of fraudsters and con artists. I hope that the charges announced today serve as a deterrence to those who think that stealing or obtaining funds fraudulently from the most vulnerable among us, pays; it doesn’t.”

If convicted of the conspiracy and fraud in connection with emergency benefits charges, D’Hulster, Gathercole, Harrington, and Schweitzer each face up to 60 years’ imprisonment, a $2 million fine, and five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.

This case was investigated by the United States Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, assisted by Chester County Prison.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721.