Kunia Woman Arraigned on Scheme to Defraud Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Recipients (Press Release)

Summary

A press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii, dated Tuesday, September 5, 2023, announcing that Oseola Vakameilalo, 54, of Kunia pled not guilty to all 12 charges in an indictment returned on August 24, 2023, relating to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. The indictment alleges that Vakameilalo set up PUA claims for Hawaii residents on the state labor department website and later, without the claimants' knowledge and consent, changed the bank account receiving their payments to Vakameilalo's own. According to the indictment, Vakameilalo fraudulently obtained approximately $52,270 in benefits intended for other individuals. The charges are ten counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, with trial set for October 31, 2023 before Senior District Judge Susan Oki Mollway.

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



Kunia Woman Arraigned on
Scheme to Defraud Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance
Recipients
Tuesday, September 5, 2023


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

HONOLULU – On September 5, 2023, Oseola Vakameilalo, 54, of Kunia, Hawaii was
arraigned in federal court and pled not guilty to all 12 charges in an indictment relating
to fraud in connection with the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)
unemployment insurance program. Federal law enforcement arrested Vakameilalo on
September 5, 2023, after a federal grand jury had returned the indictment on August 24,
2023. Trial was set for October 31, 2023, before Senior District Judge Susan Oki Mollway.
Vakameilalo was ordered released on pretrial conditions.

According to the indictment, Vakameilalo is charged with wire fraud in connection with
a scheme to defraud Hawaii residents of PUA unemployment benefit payments to which
they were qualified to receive. In 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic
Security (CARES) Act Congress created the PUA program to provide emergency
unemployment payments to certain workers whose livelihoods were impacted adversely
by the COVID-19 pandemic, but who were ineligible for traditional state unemployment
insurance benefits.

The indictment alleges that Vakameilalo purported to assist individuals with filing claims
for PUA unemployment benefit payments. Among other things, she created profiles for
them on the Hawaii Department of Industrial and Labor Relations (DLIR) website using
their personal information, including social security number and date of birth, as well as
their bank account information to receive direct deposits of benefit payments. The
indictment further alleges that, for each individual claimant, Vakameilalo then logged
onto the Hawaii DLIR website with the username and password she had created for the
claimant and submitted weekly certifications that the claimant remained eligible for
benefit payments so that the claimant could obtain payments.

The indictment alleges that after the claimant had received a certain number of
payments, Vakameilalo used the claimant’s log-in credentials to access the claimant’s
DLIR account without the claimant’s knowledge and consent. While falsely purporting to
be or to represent the claimant, Vakameilalo then changed the bank account she
previously had designated to receive the PUA unemployment benefit payments from
the claimant’s bank account to her own. The indictment alleges that Vakameilalo
continued to use the claimant’s credentials regularly to log on to the claimant’s Hawaii
DLIR account, without the claimant’s knowledge and consent, to submit the
certifications required for the benefit payments to continue, knowing that the payments
would be made to her own bank account and not the claimant’s. According to the
indictment, Vakameilalo fraudulently obtained approximately $52,270 in PUA
unemployment benefits that were intended for other individuals.

“These criminal acts were committed for personal gain and at the expense of people
who needed and deserved financial assistance during a global pandemic.” said U.S.
Attorney Clare E. Connors. “We will pursue criminal consequences for individuals who
unlawfully take advantage of federal financial assistance programs created during times
of widespread financial need.”

“Charged with investigating allegations of fraud against the U.S. Department of Labor’s
unemployment insurance programs, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
program, the DOL-OIG is committed to working relentlessly to protect the integrity of
these vital benefits,” said Quentin Heiden, Special Agent-in-Charge, Western Region,
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General. “We are grateful to the U.S.
Attorney’s Office in the District of Hawaii, the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial
Relations, the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, the FBI, and our other federal partners
for their strong partnership and collaboration on these types of investigations.”

“'This defendant took advantage of those families who came to her for assistance and
instead diverted funds for her own personal gain," said FBI Special Agent in Charge
Steven Merrill. "The FBI will ensure that cases like these will be investigated to the fullest
extent of the law."

Vakameilalo is charged with ten counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated
identity theft. Each of the wire fraud counts carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in
prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000. Each of the aggravated identity theft counts
carries a sentence of two years in prison.
An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless
and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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) at 866-720-5721 or online at www.justice.gov/DisasterComplaintForm.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector
General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S.
Attorney Gregg Paris Yates.

Contact
Elliot Enoki
Elliot.Enoki@usdoj.gov

Updated September 6, 2023

Topic
CORONAVIRUS
Component
USAO - Hawaii


File and source

File

2023-09-07-Kunia-Woman-Arraigned-on-Scheme-to-Defraud-Pandemic-Unemployment-Assistance-Recipients-USAO-D-HI-09.pdf

Size

170,349 bytes

SHA-256

eb6d58e02cf0f2769b17baa9107570af8150254ae751698720964c5d93b04f4a

Our copy

2023-09-07-Kunia-Woman-Arraigned-on-Scheme-to-Defraud-Pandemic-Unemployment-Assistance-Recipients-USAO-D-HI-09.pdf

Original

No public link identified.