Reports

HONOLULU – On September 5, 2023, Oseola Vakameilalo, was arraigned in federal court and pled not guilty to all 12 charges in an indictment relating to fraud in connection with the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) unemployment insurance program.

The federal CARES Act created new federal unemployment compensation (UC) programs including Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, increasing the weekly benefit amount, and expanding eligibility to claimants not otherwise eligible for unemployment benefits. From March 15, 2020, through June 30, 2022, the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) paid $39.9 billion in UC claims from 5.8 million claims created for 3.48 claimants. This audit report is the fourth of a series of five audit reports on UIA claims...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, claims for unemployment insurance benefits increased significantly, and many claimants experienced lengthy delays in receiving payments. The unprecedented volume of claims made delays inevitable, but the Georgia Department of Labor’s (GDOL) claims management and customer service systems were also factors. GDOL should continue planned improvements to both.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) is charged with conducting oversight of pandemic-related spending to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. In May 2021, we engaged MITRE, a not-for-profit federally funded research and development center, to conduct an independent study of lessons learned from the administration of pandemic-related emergency funding for unemployment insurance (UI) benefit programs in a sample of states. The objective of this study was to increase understanding of how states implemented pandemic UI benefit programs and how their...

A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging six individuals for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft, relating to the submission of fraudulent CARES Act unemployment insurance (“UI”) claims. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was a federal law enacted in March 2020 to provide emergency financial assistance to Americans suffering from the economic effects caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The indictment was returned on October 24, 2023, and unsealed today upon the arrests of several defendants.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – An indictment was unsealed after a California man was arrested and is scheduled to appear in a Salt Lake City federal courthouse. The eight count indictment charges the defendant for unlawfully collecting unemployment insurance during COVID-19 from California while living and working in Utah. He also allegedly assisted others in committing the same acts for a cut of their unemployment insurance funds administered under the CARES Act.

Jackson, Miss. – Judith Ann Middleton, 70, of Ridgeland, Mississippi, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with multiple violations of federal law involving unemployment insurance benefits fraud.

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang today sentenced Jerry Phillips, a/k/a “Tian Juzo,” age 25, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, to seven years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for a wire fraud conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and illegal possession of a machine gun, related to a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $1 million in COVID-19 CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program loan applications (“PPP”), Economic Injury Disaster loan applications (“EIDL”), and unemployment insurance claims. Judge Chuang also ordered Phillips to pay restitution of $1,235...

LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A Woodlands, Texas, man pleaded guilty today for his role in an unemployment insurance benefits scheme to defraud the California Employment Development Department (EDD).

The CARES and Continued Assistance Acts expanded states’ ability to provide unemployment insurance for many workers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including for workers who were not ordinarily eligible for unemployment benefits, non traditional claimants. Our audit will determine if non traditional claimants received Unemployment Insurance benefits as intended under the CARES Act and the Continued Assistance Act.