California Resident Sentenced To Prison For Committing Unemployment Insurance Benefits Fraud (Press Release)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Nevada, dated July 25, 2023, announcing that Breon Dante Mims was sentenced by United States District Judge Gloria M. Navarro to 27 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Mims pleaded guilty to illegal transaction with access devices. According to court documents cited in the release, on September 20, 2020 Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers found Mims with $10,080 in cash and 10 debit cards issued in other names by the California Employment Development Department (EDD). The release states that at least $261,600 of unemployment benefits were approved and that Mims withdrew at least $77,000 from ATMs in Nevada and California. The DOL-OIG investigated the case.

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Full text

PRESS RELEASE



California Resident Sentenced To
Prison For Committing
Unemployment Insurance Benefits
Fraud
Tuesday, July 25, 2023


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

LAS VEGAS – A Stockton, California, resident was sentenced today by United States
District Judge Gloria M. Navarro to 27 months in prison followed by three years of
supervised release for fraudulently using unemployment insurance benefits debit cards
in other peoples’ names without their authorization to withdraw thousands of dollars.

Breon Dante Mims (32) pleaded guilty to illegal transaction with access devices.

According to court documents, on September 20, 2020, officers from the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department stopped Mims walking along Las Vegas Boulevard after
observing him smoking a marijuana blunt in public. During the stop, officers found
Mims in possession of $10,080 in cash and 10 California Employment Development
Department (EDD) debit cards issued in other names. 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 of unemployment benefits were approved, 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
prosecuted 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 July 25, 2023

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD
Component
USAO - Nevada


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