Yonkers Man Pleads Guilty to Unemployment Insurance Fraud (Press Release, May 17, 2023)

Summary

A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York, dated Wednesday, May 17, 2023, announcing that Errol Murray, age 22, of Yonkers pled guilty to conspiring to defraud the New York State Department of Labor by obtaining unemployment insurance benefits under the names of other people. According to the release, Murray admitted providing Jamie Johnson with personal identifying information that Johnson used to file false claims, and that the two fraudulent applications led to payments of $69,954. Murray agreed to pay $69,954 in restitution to the State of New York, and the release states that Johnson previously pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $701,441 in benefits. Sentencing before Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn is scheduled for September 14, 2023.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

PRESS RELEASE



Yonkers Man Pleads Guilty to
Unemployment Insurance Fraud
Wednesday, May 17, 2023

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Errol Murray, age 22, of Yonkers, New York, pled guilty today to
conspiring to defraud the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) by obtaining
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, 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, Northeast Region, United
States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (USDOL-OIG).

Murray admitted that he provided Jamie Johnson with his personal identifying
information and the personal identifying information of another person, which Johnson
used to file false claims via the NYSDOL website. Murray further admitted that as a
result of the two fraudulent applications submitted by Johnson, the NYSDOL paid
$69,954 in unemployment insurance benefits. As part of his plea agreement, Murray
agreed to pay $69,954 in restitution to the State of New York. Johnson previously pled
guilty to fraudulently obtaining $701,441 in unemployment insurance benefits as part of
the scheme.

Murray faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of
supervised release of up to 3 years when he is sentenced on September 14, 2023 by
Senior U.S. District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn.

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. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joshua R. Rosenthal and Joseph S. Hartunian are
prosecuting 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.

Updated May 17, 2023

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD


Component
USAO - New York, Northern


File and source

File

2023-05-18-Yonkers-Man-Pleads-Guilty-to-Unemployment-Insurance-Fraud-USAO-ND-NY-05-17-2023.pdf

Size

164,094 bytes

SHA-256

a3c70fb2b9dff20375cdbb513740b3479988a9a493e66c839a44571335171d6e

Our copy

2023-05-18-Yonkers-Man-Pleads-Guilty-to-Unemployment-Insurance-Fraud-USAO-ND-NY-05-17-2023.pdf

Original

No public link identified.