Three men of Nigerian origin were sent to jail by the federal court in Indianapolis for stealing $520,910 of unemployment benefits by a COVID-19 fraud scheme.
The defendants were said to have carried out the operation between the months of August and October 2020, focusing on unemployment insurance programs created as a result of the pandemic.
Kamaldeen Karaole, 24, was convicted of aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and access device fraud and was given a 4 years and 3 months sentence. Stephen Olamigoke, 23, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and will be deported after discharge. Johnson Omodusonu, 24, was sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment. They were all also made to pay $520,910 in restitution.
The one also concerns the theft of 168 unemployment insurance debit cards issued in California, Arizona, and Nevada, for which the defendants used stolen personal information and submitted fraudulent applications.
They took the stolen money out through 529 ATM transactions in Indianapolis and planned to use it to help those who had lost their jobs because of the pandemic under programs such as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PEUC).
Federal officials criticized the plan as using a lifeline in a time of an emergency of historical proportions. U.S. Attorney Tom Wheeler called it “heartless and criminal,” while FBI Special Agent Timothy Malley said the defendants “shamelessly profited from a national crisis taking money meant for struggling families.”
The FBI, U.S. Department of Labor-Office of Inspector General, and U.S. Postal Inspection Service were the agencies that investigated the case.
The investigation involved following the money across multiple jurisdictions and working side by side with different unemployment agencies to get to the truth.
This is just one example of the government cracking down on fraud involving pandemic relief. There was an unprecedented demand for unemployment programs during COVID-19, and that created vulnerabilities which criminals took advantage of.
Since 2020, Federal agencies have gotten back the hard-earned money they gave to scammers by doing quality checks; the amount recovered is in billions.
