Michigan Man Sentenced for Scheme to Obtain COVID Relief Funds in a Dozen Different States

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts dated November 17, 2022. It announces that Devin Smith, a Michigan man, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 30 months in prison, two years of supervised release and $269,465 in restitution and forfeiture. Smith pleaded guilty on March 29, 2022, to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, according to the release. It states that between March and September 2020 Smith used stolen identities to submit unemployment and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims in 12 different states, resulting in approximately $230,000 in payments, and submitted PPP loan applications for fictitious businesses resulting in approximately $40,000.

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                  Thursday, November 17, 2022

Michigan Man Sentenced for Scheme to Obtain COVID Relief
           Funds in a Dozen Different States
            Defendant used stolen identities to submit fraudulent claims
BOSTON – A Michigan man was sentenced today in federal court in Boston for his involvement in a
fraudulent scheme to obtain COVID-19-related unemployment assistance and small business loans
in 12 different states.

Devin Smith, 31, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to 30 months in
prison and two years of supervised release. Smith was also ordered to pay $269,465 in restitution
and forfeiture. On March 29, 2022, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of
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). The CARES Act provided funding to existing
state unemployment insurance programs and created a new temporary federal 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.

The CARES Act also created a temporary loan program directed at small businesses called the
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The loans were processed by private financial institutions and
fully guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration. If a business used the loan funds for
approved purposes, such as payroll, the loan could be forgiven by the financial institution and paid
for by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Between March and September 2020, Smith participated in a scheme to obtain proceeds from
fraudulent unemployment and PUA claims submitted in 12 different states, including Massachusetts.
Smith used stolen identities, including the identities of Massachusetts residents, to submit
fraudulent unemployment and PUA claims resulting in approximately $230,000 in payments.
Additionally, Smith submitted multiple PPP loan applications in the names of fictitious businesses
resulting in approximately $40,000 in payments.

United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins and Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of
Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations
made the announcement today. Valuable assistance in the investigation was provided by the U.S.
Postal Service and the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Christopher J. Markham of Rollins’ 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):
Coronavirus                                          USAO - Massachusetts
Financial Fraud
Identity Theft


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