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BOSTON – A former employee of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to fraudulently obtaining over $40,000 in pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits.

Lakeia Simone Grant, aka Lakeia Shepperd, 40, of Newport News, was sentenced to over seven years in prison for COVID era unemployment insurance fraud scheme.

A Seaside, Oregon, woman was sentenced to federal prison yesterday for submitting fraudulent pandemic unemployment applications, falsely claiming over two dozen employees, and causing the government to pay her over half a million dollars in benefits.

BOSTON – A former corrections officer employed by the Suffolk County Sherriff’s Department pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to submitting fraudulent information in an effort to obtain loans through CARES Act programs like the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Darnell Jones, also known as “EJ,” was sentenced today by United States District Judge Dora L. Irizarry in federal court in Brooklyn to 145 months’ imprisonment for wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. During the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic, from March 2020 through August 2021, Jones used stolen personal identifying information to fraudulently obtain more than $800,000 from federally funded unemployment insurance programs established under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

BOSTON – A Fitchburg, Mass. man pleaded guilty today in federal court in Worcester to his role in a fraud scheme that used the stolen identities of more than 100 individuals to obtain $440,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The defendant and his alleged co-conspirators also fraudulently obtained over $700,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio Washington and Nevada.

A South Carolina woman was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay substantial restitution for her role in a multi-state scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits.

BOSTON – A Worcester man has been charged with fraudulently obtaining tens of thousands of dollars in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) while employed as a TSA Security Officer full-time.

Two Cordele, Georgia, men were sentenced today for their participation in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL) out of millions of dollars in benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Norman Dixson has been arraigned on federal charges of sponsoring and exhibiting a dog in an animal fighting venture, promoting an animal fighting venture, animal crushing, and wire fraud.