California Man Pleads Guilty To Committing Unemployment Insurance Benefits Fraud (Press Release)

Summary

A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Nevada, dated Friday, April 21, 2023, announcing that Breon Dante Mims, 32, of Stockton, California, pleaded guilty to illegal transaction with access devices. According to court documents and admissions in court, on September 20, 2020, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers found $10,080 in cash and 10 California Employment Development Department debit cards in other people's names in a backpack Mims carried. The release states that at least $261,600 in benefits were approved on the associated unemployment claims and that Mims withdrew at least $77,000 from ATMs in Nevada and California. A sentencing hearing before Judge Gloria M. Navarro is scheduled for July 25, 2023.

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Full text

PRESS RELEASE



California Man Pleads Guilty To
Committing Unemployment
Insurance Benefits Fraud
Friday, April 21, 2023


For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nevada


LAS VEGAS – A California resident pleaded guilty today to using multiple California
Employment Development Department (EDD) unemployment insurance benefits debit
cards in other peoples’ names without their authorization.

Breon Dante Mims (32), of Stockton, Calif., pleaded guilty to illegal transaction with
access devices. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 25, 2023, before United States
District Judge Gloria M. Navarro. Mims faces a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in
prison.

According to court documents and admissions made in court by Mims, on September
20, 2020, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers stopped Mims walking
along Las Vegas Boulevard after he was observed smoking a marijuana blunt in public.
During the stop, officers obtained Mims’ consent to search his backpack, and they found
$10,080 in cash and 10 EDD debit cards none of which were in Mims’ name. He
admitted that he possessed and used these EDD debit cards without authorization; and
that he submitted the unemployment claims associated with the EDD debit cards
without authorization. At least $261,600 in benefits were approved for the
unemployment claims associated with the cards, and Mims withdrew at least $77,000
from various ATMs in Nevada and California using these fraudulently obtained EDD
debit cards.

United States Attorney Jason M. Frierson for the District of Nevada and Special Agent in
Charge Quentin Heiden of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General
(DOL-OIG), Western Region made the announcement.
The DOL-OIG investigated the case. Assistant United States Attorney Jim Fang is
prosecuting the case.

In May 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
Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF web complaint form
at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

                                          ###


Updated April 21, 2023

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD


Component
USAO - Nevada


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