Texas Woman Sentenced for Unemployment Fraud Related to COVID-19 Pandemic
Summary
A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts dated March 8, 2022. It announces that Donna Wasson of San Antonio, Texas, was sentenced by Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture of $5,437. Wasson pleaded guilty on Nov. 8, 2021, to three counts of wire fraud, according to the release. It states that Wasson applied for Massachusetts Pandemic Unemployment Assistance while residing in Texas and receiving Texas benefits, carried out instructions from a former Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance employee, and accessed claims under multiple stolen identities.
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“Texas Woman Sentenced for Unemployment Fraud Related to COVID-19 Pandemic.”
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Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Massachusetts
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, March 8, 2022
Texas Woman Sentenced for Unemployment Fraud Related
to COVID-19 Pandemic
BOSTON – A Texas woman was sentenced today for her involvement in a scheme to fraudulently
claim COVID-19-related unemployment assistance.
Donna Wasson, 37, of San Antonio, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F.
Dennis Saylor IV to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release. Wasson was also
ordered to pay restitution and forfeiture in the amount of $5,437. On Nov. 8, 2021, Wasson pleaded
guilty to three counts of wire fraud.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) created a temporary federal
unemployment insurance program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). PUA,
administered by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance, provides
unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who are not eligible for other types of
unemployment benefits (e.g., the self-employed, independent contractors, or gig economy workers).
Wasson applied for Massachusetts unemployment benefits despite residing in Texas and receiving
unemployment benefits via the Texas Workplace Commission. In addition, Wasson carried out
instructions concerning other fraudulent unemployment claims from a former Massachusetts
Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) employee, and accessed unemployment claims
under multiple stolen identities to fraudulently obtain benefits to which she was not entitled.
The investigation is being conducted by Homeland Security’s Investigation’s Document and Benefit
Fraud Task Force (DBFTF), a specialized field investigative group comprised of personnel from
various local, state, and federal agencies with expertise in detecting, deterring, and disrupting
organizations and individuals involved in various types of document, identity, and benefit fraud
schemes.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Matthew B. Millhollin, Special Agent in Charge of
Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; and Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations
made the announcement today. Special assistance was provided by the Massachusetts Department of
Unemployment Assistance, Program Integrity Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Abely, Chief of
Rollins’ Criminal Division, and Dustin Chao, Chief of Rollins’ Public Corruption & Special
Prosecutions 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):
Coronavirus USAO - Massachusetts
Financial Fraud
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