Las Vegas Man Sentenced For Filing Fraudulent Unemployment Insurance Claims Totaling Over $250,000

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada dated October 27, 2021, announcing a 49-month federal prison sentence for Antwine Demon Hunter, 34, of Las Vegas, who pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of mail fraud. According to the release, from June 1, 2020 to September 28, 2020 Hunter and co-conspirators used victims' personally identifiable information to submit 24 false unemployment claims to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation (DETR) and the California Employment Development Department (EDD). More than $250,000 in benefits was approved and at least $189,118 was withdrawn by Hunter, using debit cards mailed to addresses he had access to. The judge also ordered restitution and three years of supervised release.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

                                     Department of Justice
                                      U.S. Attorney’s Office
                                       District of Nevada

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                Wednesday, October 27, 2021

     Las Vegas Man Sentenced For Filing Fraudulent
  Unemployment Insurance Claims Totaling Over $250,000
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – A Las Vegas man was sentenced today to 49 months in federal prison for filing
two dozen fraudulent unemployment insurance claims, which were approved for more than
$250,000 in unemployment benefits from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training, and
Rehabilitation (DETR) and California Employment Development Department (EDD).

Antwine Demon Hunter, 34, pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of mail fraud. In addition to the
term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Andrew P. Gordon ordered Hunter to pay restitution and
sentenced him to three years of supervised release.

According to court documents and admissions made in court, from June 1, 2020 to September 28,
2020, Hunter and co-conspirators used personally identifiable information belonging to victims to
submit 24 false unemployment claims to DETR and EDD. As part of the scheme, Hunter had DETR
and EDD mail debit cards containing unemployment benefits to addresses he had access to. In total,
more than $250,000 in unemployment benefits was approved, and at least $189,118 was withdrawn
by Hunter.

Acting U.S. Attorney Christopher Chiou for the District of Nevada and Special Agent in Charge
Quentin Heiden of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General (DOL-OIG), Los
Angeles Region made the announcement.

This case was investigated by the DOL-OIG. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Fang 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):                                            Component(s):
Coronavirus                                          USAO - Nevada
Financial Fraud


File and source

File

2021-11-02-Las-Vegas-Man-Sentenced-For-Filing-Fraudulent-Unemployment-Insurance-Claims-Totaling-Over-250-000-U.pdf

Size

86,784 bytes

SHA-256

b2ccb0c6def906b83fcd475925b7acff1e58b321d21cfa2c96e1fe6c69287c42

Our copy

2021-11-02-Las-Vegas-Man-Sentenced-For-Filing-Fraudulent-Unemployment-Insurance-Claims-Totaling-Over-250-000-U.pdf

Original

No public link identified.