Former Human Resources Manager Sentenced to Federal Prison for Defrauding Employer (Press Release)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Iowa dated January 18, 2023, about case file numbers 22-CR-1008 and 22-CR-1026. It announces that Holly Marie Jacobi, formerly known as Holly Marie Bemis, was sentenced on January 11, 2023, by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams to four months' imprisonment and four months' home confinement, with $95,567.69 in restitution, after pleading guilty on July 20, 2022, to wire fraud and two counts of theft of government funds. The release states that as human resources manager of a Peosta manufacturing company Jacobi wired over $65,000 in falsified payments to accounts Jacobi controlled, and fraudulently received over $17,000 in Iowa and more than $12,000 in Wisconsin unemployment benefits.

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PRESS RELEASE



Former Human Resources Manager
Sentenced to Federal Prison for
Defrauding Employer
Wednesday, January 18, 2023

For Immediate Release

U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Iowa

Also Defrauded Two States Out of COVID-19 Unemployment
Benefits
A former human resources manager who stole over $95,000 from her employer and two
state unemployment agencies was sentenced on January 11, 2023, to four months in
federal prison. Holly Marie Jacobi, formerly known as Holly Marie Bemis, of Epworth,
Iowa, received the prison term after pleading guilty on July 20, 2022, to one count of
wire fraud and two counts of theft of government funds.

In a plea agreement, and at her sentencing hearing, it was established that Jacobi was
the human resources manager for a Peosta, Iowa, manufacturing company. Between
June 2019 and July 2020, Jacobi falsified payroll expenses and health care
reimbursements in the names of ten employees and directed the company’s payroll
system to wire over $65,000 in falsified payments to two bank accounts that she
controlled. Jacobi also filed a false and fraudulent application for federally funded
COVID-19 unemployment insurance benefits with the State of Iowa. Jacobi stated that
she was unemployed from the company due to “[l]ayoff . . . lack of work,” when in truth
she was still employed as the company’s human resources manager. As a result, Jacobi
received over $17,000 in fraudulent unemployment benefits from the State of Iowa. The
company discovered Jacobi’s fraud and terminated her employment.

Jacobi also admitted that she later obtained and lost employment at a cheese company
in Wisconsin. After losing that second job, Jacobi applied for federally funded
unemployment benefits from the State of Wisconsin. Jacobi then obtained a job from a
California-based company. From May 2021 through October 2021, Jacobi falsely
certified to the State of Wisconsin on weekly reporting forms that she had received no
weekly wages when, in truth, she was receiving weekly wages totaling between $1,100
and $6,000 from the California-based company. As a result, Jacobi fraudulently received
more than $12,000 in federally funded unemployment benefits paid through the State
of Wisconsin. Jacobi previously pled guilty in 2001 to felony forgery and misdemeanor
theft charges in Scott County, Iowa.

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.

Jacobi was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J.
Williams. Jacobi was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment and four months’ home
confinement. Jacobi was also ordered to repay $6,000 in court-appointed attorney
fees. She was ordered to make $95,567.69 in restitution to her former employer and the
States of Iowa and Wisconsin. She must also serve a three-year term of supervised
release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Jacobi was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of
Prisons on a date yet to be set. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States
Attorney Timothy L. Vavricek and investigated by the Peosta Police Department and the
United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file numbers are 22-CR-1008 and 22-CR-1026.

Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.
Updated January 18, 2023
Topics

CORONAVIRUS



FINANCIAL FRAUD

Component

USAO - Iowa, Northern


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