Nine inmates charged in unemployment scam
Nine men, all serving the last of their prison terms in a halfway house, were charged Thursday with defrauding the state unemployment fund of $160,000 in benefits, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced.
The arrests and charges are part of a larger investigation into prison inmates across the state who are suspected of defrauding the program of as much as $2 billion. The scam was uncovered in December, and locally District Attorney Summer Stephan has said that inmates at both the local jails and the Richard J. Donovan state prison in Otay Mesa ripped off the state of at least $5 million.
According to a news release from Stephan’s office, all of the nine inmates were assigned to the Male Community Reentry Program, or MCRP. That’s a state program that allows some individuals with about a year to serve on their sentences to live in a halfway house to prepare them for the transition to life outside prison.
The fraud the group is accused of committing occurred between June and September last year. Prosecutors said the defendants were able to game the system and largely targeted the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. That program, approved by Congress, appropriated billions to state unemployment funds to increase jobless benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the news release, prosecutors said the defendants used the funds to get everything from luxury items on Amazon to meals delivered from restaurants.
The San Diego County defendants are charged in Superior Court with conspiracy, grand theft and lying to receive unemployment benefits. They face more than three years in prisons if convicted of all the charges.
The statewide investigation, which some prosecutors have said might be the largest fraud against taxpayers ever in the state, is ongoing. Federal authorities are involved.
Last month the U.S. Attorney in San Diego charged Nykia Gomez with wire fraud and identity theft. Prosecutors said Gomez worked for the Employment Development Department and orchestrated defrauding the program for her prison inmate boyfriend and several of his fellow prisoners.