Five Plead Guilty to Pandemic Unemployment Fraud, Mail Fraud Charges

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia dated Friday, August 27, 2021, announcing guilty pleas in U.S. District Court in Abingdon. It states that Patrick Payne, 43, Randall Johnson, 42, Steven Mullins Jr., 33, Curtis Mullins, 25, and Melinda Davis, 58, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. According to court documents, the conspirators filed claims for pandemic unemployment benefits through the Virginia Employment Commission website for people who were not eligible, including inmates in southwest Virginia regional jails. The release states that the conspiracy filed fraudulent claims for approximately 37 individuals, causing at least $499,000 in false claims to be paid, and that 19 co-conspirators have pleaded guilty to date.

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                                      Department of Justice

                                         U.S. Attorney’s Office

                                     Western District of Virginia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   Friday, August 27, 2021



  Five Plead Guilty to Pandemic Unemployment Fraud, Mail
                        Fraud Charges
ABINGDON, Va.– Five Southwest Virginia residents who conspired with more than 30 others to
defraud the United States government by filing fraudulent claims for more than $499,000 in
pandemic unemployment benefits, mail fraud and associated offenses pleaded guilty this week and
last in U.S. District Court in Abingdon.

According to court documents, Patrick Payne, 43, Randall Johnson, 42, Steven Mullins Jr., 33, Curtis
Mullins, 25 and Melinda Davis, 58, conspired with others to file claims for pandemic unemployment
benefits through the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) website. The scheme involved
submitting claims for various individuals who were not eligible to receive pandemic unemployment
benefits, including for numerous inmates incarcerated in southwest Virginia regional jails. To date,
19 of the co-conspirators have pleaded guilty to their roles in the broader conspiracy.

Conspiracy members lied on the filings as part of the scheme to make filers appear eligible for
benefits. Because pandemic unemployment benefits were paid weekly, each of those filings re-
verified and re-certified the false statements on numerous occasions throughout the scheme.

In all, the conspiracy filed fraudulent claims for approximately 37 individuals, causing at least
$499,000 in false claims to be have been paid. In addition to those indicted, eight co-conspirators
have already entered into plea agreements with the United States.

“These five individuals used a carefully orchestrated series of lies to steal hundreds of thousands of
dollars intended for Virginians struggling during a once-in-a-generation global health pandemic,”
Acting United States Attorney Daniel P. Bubar said today. “The Department of Justice is grateful to
the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Labor and the Virginia Employment Commission for
their hard work and commitment to investigating these cases and bringing these individuals to
justice.”

“Investigating those who fraudulently take funds from pandemic relief programs will continue to be a
focus of IRS-CI. These programs were put into place to assist those struggling through the global
crisis, not to be used for personal enrichment,” said Darrell J. Waldon, Acting Special Agent in
Charge of the IRS-CI Washington DC Field Office.

“Patrick Payne, Randall Johnson, Steven Mullins Jr., Curtis Mullins and Melinda Davis, conspired
with others to defraud the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program by filing for and receiving
benefits that they and others were not entitled to receive. The United States Department of Labor
Office of Inspector General is grateful for our partnerships with the Virginia Employment
Commission and our many law enforcement partners. We also want to thank the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for their continued efforts to prosecute those who violate public benefit programs
and commit fraud,” stated Syreeta Scott, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Philadelphia Region, U.S.
Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.
Each of the individuals pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to
commit mail fraud. Each faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A federal district court
judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other
statutory factors.

The Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General and the Internal Revenue Service –
Criminal Investigation, along with State and local partners including the Norton Police Department
and Russell County Sheriff’s Office, are investigating the case.

Assistant United States Attorney Daniel J. Murphy prosecuted the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to
marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government
to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to
investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists
agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods,
augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and
techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information
and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s
response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by
calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-
5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-
disaster-complaint-form .
Topic(s):
Coronavirus
Component(s):
USAO - Virginia, Western
                                                                                 Updated August 27, 2021


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