California law enforcement authorities cracked down a large-scale unemployment fraud ring involving 21 people who stole more than $250,000 by submitting fake claims to the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD).
It is the first major case in California involving fraudulent unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic as the EDD struggles in handling applications for benefits from millions of jobless Californians.
The unemployment fraud ring operated out of the San Mateo County Maguire Correctional Jail. Proactive investigators discovered it when they overheard inmates talking about fraudulent claims to the EDD.
In July, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office Administrative Classification Unit and the District Attorney’s Office started an investigation into the allegedly fraudulent claims.
The investigators from the Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s Office work with a criminal investigator for the EDD. They found that the unemployment fraud ring submitted bogus claims using the names of 30 different inmates.
