Two Sutter County women guilty of lying to grand jur y

Two Sutter County women were convicted Thursday of lying to a grand jury, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.

Harjit Kaur Johal, 50, and Jasvir Kaur, 47, will be sentenced on June 16.

According to evidence presented during the six-day trial, Johal and Kaur were subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury in 2014 to testify about a series of unemployment and disability fraud schemes in Yuba City organized by members of the Khan family, including Mohammad Nawaz Khan, Mohammad Adnan Khan, Mohammad Shahbaz Khan, and Mohammad Riaz Khan.

The organizers set up a series of farm labor contracting businesses that purported to provide labor to harvest crops in Sutter and Yuba counties.

The organizers then sold fraudulent paystubs to other people, including the defendants, and reported false wages to the Employment Development Department.

The purchasers of the paystubs would subsequently file for unemployment or disability benefits with the EDD based upon the fictitious wages. Because the amount of the benefits that the EDD pays is based upon the claimant’s prior earnings, the participants would pay the Khans to report high wages to the EDD.

During their testimony, when questioned about their wages, Johal and Kaur falsely stated under oath that they picked peaches for Ray Khan and that they did not commit fraud.

Both claimed they had picked peaches for Ray Khan for at least eight hours a day, six days a week, June through September. Both defendants also claimed they worked on other tasks in the orchards for hours every day after picking peaches.

Testimony from individuals with knowledge of Ray Khan’s real employees established that he did not employ the women.

Further, evidence presented at trial showed the women had reported chronic back and knee problems in prior disability claims with the EDD and were not capable of doing the physically intensive work required by peach picking.

This week’s trial was the latest in a series of cases involving the Khan family fraud schemes. The Khans reported wages for over 400 separate individuals that resulted in more than 2,000 fraudulent claims for unemployment and disability benefits.

The fraud schemes defrauded EDD of more than $14 million. To date, 26 individuals have been convicted of various offenses related to the schemes. Marysville office, 1530 Ellis Lake Drive Business hours: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

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