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Illinois Man Sentenced to 55 Months in Prison For Wire Fraud (September 8, 2022)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana dated September 8, 2022. It announces that Martae Patton of Chicago was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Philip P. Simon to 55 months in prison and 2 years of supervised release on a guilty plea to wire fraud, and ordered to pay restitution of $936,208.34. According to documents filed in the case, the release states, Patton took part in a scheme using personal information of unsuspecting persons to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Illinois, with debit cards sent to addresses in and around the Northern District of Indiana. The release quotes the Department of Labor inspector general as saying the scheme resulted in nearly $1 million in fraudulent benefits.

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“Illinois Man Sentenced to 55 Months in Prison For Wire Fraud (September 8, 2022).” Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2022-09-13-illinois-man-sentenced-to-55-months-in-prison-usao-nd-in-09-459879583f/, SHA-256 dc825a9b65d6cecdd412171e7188c2cbbd7691f14680a5e1f2b8a588766c80d8.

Full text

                                       Department of Justice
                                         U.S. Attorney’s Office
                                     Northern District of Indiana


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                    Thursday, September 8, 2022

            Illinois Man Sentenced to 55 Months in Prison
                                          For Wire Fraud
HAMMOND – Martae Patton, 36, of Chicago, Illinois, was sentenced by United States District Court
Judge Philip P. Simon. on his plea of guilty to engaging in wire fraud announced United States
Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Patton was sentenced to 55 months in prison followed by 2 years of supervised release. He was
further ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $936,208.34

According to documents filed in the case, Patton engaged in a scheme to defraud the federal
government and several state governments of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) monies
through false and fraudulent pretenses. PUA, a federal program overseen by the U.S. Department of
Labor, is designed to assist individuals whose employment was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic
by augmenting existing State unemployment benefits.

Patton was part of a scheme where the objective was to use personal information of unsuspecting
persons to apply for unemployment benefits in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. The fraudulently
obtained benefits were then sent on a debit card to addresses associated with Patton and others
located in and around the Northern District of Indiana. Patton and others then retrieved the debit
cards and drained the funds through the purchases of money orders, ATM withdrawals and other
means.

United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson said, “This prosecution shows that my Office will
aggressively prosecute persons who, by means of fraud, obtain federal funds that Congress
appropriated to assist unemployed persons through the economic hardship created by the COVID
pandemic. Such theft of federal funds tears the safety net that Congress implemented for American
workers and their families.”

“This was a crime of greed and opportunity. The pandemic has created a great need for many who
not only lost their livelihood, but in many cases their normalcy. This need unfortunately has been
exploited by an individual who sought to steal and bilk the government for funds to which they were
not entitled, interfering with the rightful distribution of pandemic relief. Postal Inspectors and their
law enforcement partners will never tolerate this behavior and will tirelessly work to investigate and
bring these individuals to justice for their illegal activity,” said Rodney M. Hopkins, U.S. Postal
Inspector in Charge, Detroit Division of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

“Martae Patton participated in a scheme that defrauded several states and the federal government by
filing fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims using PII of unsuspecting individuals,
resulting in the payment of nearly $1 million in fraudulent UI benefits. Patton’s scheme diverted
money away from American workers in need of relief from the financial effects of
unemployment. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to safeguard the UI
system from those who exploit these benefit programs,” said Irene Lindow, Special Agent-in-Charge,
Chicago Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.
This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the United States
Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United
States Attorney Thomas McGrath.
Topic(s):                                             Component(s):
Coronavirus                                           USAO - Indiana, Northern
Financial Fraud

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