Three Men Arrested in Unemployment Insurance Fraud Conspiracy (September 1, 2022)

Summary

A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York, dated September 1, 2022, announcing the arrests of Thomas Brace a/k/a "Justice," 61, Taliek Lanier, 22, and Errol Murray, 21, on an indictment alleging a conspiracy to defraud the New York State Department of Labor. The indictment alleges that the three provided personal identifying information of other people to Jamie Johnson, who used it to file false claims on the NYSDOL website. According to the release, Johnson previously pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $701,441 in unemployment insurance benefits under other people's names. The defendants are charged with mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and the release states that the charges are merely accusations.

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                                      Department of Justice

                                        U.S. Attorney’s Office

                                   Northern District of New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 Thursday, September 1, 2022



    Three Men Arrested in Unemployment Insurance Fraud
                         Conspiracy
ALBANY, NEW YORK – Thomas Brace a/k/a “Justice,” age 61, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and
formerly of Albany; Taliek Lanier, age 22, of Albany; and Errol Murray, age 21, of Yonkers, New
York, were arrested this week on an indictment alleging their participation in a conspiracy to defraud
the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL). The defendants allegedly conspired with Jamie
Johnson, who previously pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $701,441 in unemployment insurance
benefits under the names of other people, including benefits funded by the federal government in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; New York State
Inspector General Lucy Lang; Matthew Scarpino, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field
Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the
Boston Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); and Jonathan Mellone,
Special Agent in Charge, New York Region, United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector
General (USDOL-OIG).

The indictment alleges that Brace, Lanier, and Murray provided Johnson with the personal
identifying information of other people, which Johnson used to file false claims via the NYSDOL
website. The charges in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendants are presumed
innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Murray was arraigned yesterday before United States Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart and
released with conditions pending trial. Brace also appeared yesterday before Judge Stewart and is
scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow. Lanier appeared today before a federal magistrate judge in the
Middle District of Pennsylvania, was released with conditions, and will be arraigned before Judge
Stewart on September 7.

The defendants are charged with mail and wire fraud, as well as aggravated identity theft. The mail
and wire fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a
term of supervised release of up to 3 years. The charges for aggravated identity theft carry a
mandatory term of 2 years in prison, to be imposed consecutive to any other term of imprisonment.
A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is
charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

This case was investigated by the New York State Inspector General’s Office, HSI, USPIS, and
USDOL-OIG, with assistance from the NYSDOL Office of Special Investigations, the Capital Region
Crime Analysis Center, and the Albany County Department of Social Services. The case is being
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. Chisholm.

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
Financial Fraud
Identity Theft
Component(s):
USAO - New York, Northern
                                                                             Updated September 1, 2022


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