Jobless Benefits Scam Involving Prison Inmates Cost California Hundreds of Millions

Posted By TheNewsCommenter: From Nationalreview.com: “Jobless Benefits Scam Involving Prison Inmates Cost California Hundreds of Millions | National Review”. Below is an excerpt from the article.

An unemployment insurance scam that used the names of prisoners to claim jobless benefits in California may have cost the state up to $1 billion dollars, a law enforcement task force led by California district attorneys announced on Tuesday.

A total of 35,000 unemployment claims were filed using the names of California state prison inmates, and more than 20,000 of the claims were paid, totaling at least $140 million in benefits, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said. The scam targeted the pandemic-related unemployment assistance provided by California’s Employment Development Department. The largest single claim made was for $48,600, and in some cases multiple claims were made in the name of a single inmate.

“The fraud is honestly staggering,” Schubert said, adding that the scheme could be “the biggest fraud of taxpayer dollars in California history.”

Fraudulent claims were filed under the names of several convicted serial killers, Scott Peterson, who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and their unborn son, and at least 133 prisoners on death row including Isauro Aguirre, who along with his girlfriend tortured and murdered her 8-year-old son.

Most of the claims were paid in the form of prepaid debit cards sent to addresses on the unemployment insurance applications, funds that were later deposited into inmate accounts, although in some cases the benefits from the claims were sent directly to the jails and prisons. Sometimes the benefits even made it into the hands of inmates’ relatives and friends outside the prisons.

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