Lawrence Woman Sentenced to Prison for Identity Theft and Unemployment Fraud Related to COVID-19 Pandemic

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts dated November 4, 2021, announcing that Raquel Pena, 40, of Lawrence was sentenced by Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to three years in prison and one year of supervised release. Pena pleaded guilty on July 15, 2021 to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and was ordered to pay restitution for money the government cannot recover, estimated at $360,700. According to the release, Pena kept a notebook with the names and personal information of others that was used to file fraudulent Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims, and recruited acquaintances to receive the proceeds into their bank accounts. The investigation tied Pena and co-conspirators to $360,700 in claims paid between May 2020 and March 2021.

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“Lawrence Woman Sentenced to Prison for Identity Theft and Unemployment Fraud Related to COVID-19 Pandemic.” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2021-11-10-lawrence-woman-sentenced-to-prison-for-identity-theft-and-u-70d3dea3bb/, SHA-256 e651e640c11347ae73828a0144a0d85c4d8b8622cdd7eb316e23eeb7f8fcc552.

Full text

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, November 4, 2021

Lawrence Woman Sentenced to Prison for Identity Theft
and Unemployment Fraud Related to COVID-19 Pandemic
BOSTON – A Lawrence woman was sentenced today in connection with her involvement in a scheme
to fraudulently obtain COVID-19-related unemployment assistance.

Raquel Pena, 40, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge William G. Young to three years
in prison and one year of supervised release. Pena was also ordered to pay restitution for any money
that the government is unable to recover from the fraudulent unemployment assistance, which is
currently estimated at $360,700. On July 15, 2021, Pena pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated
identity theft.

In March 2020, in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which among other things, created a temporary
federal unemployment insurance program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). The
PUA program, which in Massachusetts was administered by the Department of Unemployment
Assistance, provided unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who are not eligible for other
types of unemployment benefits.

Pena possessed a notebook containing the names and personal information of others, which Pena
and her co-conspirators used to file fraudulent PUA claims. Pena recruited acquaintances to receive
the proceeds of the fraudulent claims into their bank accounts and give all or a portion of the cash to
Pena. The investigation connected Pena and her co-conspirators to $360,700 in unemployment
claims paid between May 2020 and March 2021.

Acting United States Attorney Nathaniel R. Mendell; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in
Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Jonathan Mellone, Special
Agent in Charge of Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering and Fraud
Investigations made the announcement today. The Massachusetts Department of Unemployment
Assistance provided assistance in the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Markham
of Mendell’s Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit 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):
Financial Fraud USAO - Massachusetts

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