Former Arizona Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Stealing Mainersʼ Identities

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Maine, dated January 16, 2024, announcing that U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker sentenced James McAuliffe to 60 months followed by three years of supervised release and ordered $203,616 in restitution. McAuliffe pleaded guilty on August 29, 2023 to six counts of wire fraud and six counts of aggravated identity theft. According to court records, McAuliffe filed fraudulent unemployment insurance applications with the Maine Department of Labor using others' personal identifying information and caused fraudulent applications for replacement drivers licenses to be filed with the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The release states that the benefits were loaded onto debit cards or wired to an account opened in another person's name and withdrawn at ATMs in Arizona.

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PRESS RELEASE



Former Arizona Man Sentenced
to 5 Years for Stealing Mainersʼ
Identities as Part of Pandemic
Unemployment Fraud Scheme
Tuesday, January 16, 2024

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


James McAuliffe also ordered to pay $203,616 in restitution

BANGOR, Maine: A former Arizona man was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor
today after pleading guilty to six counts of wire fraud and six counts of aggravated
identity theft.

U.S. District Judge Lance E. Walker sentenced, James McAuliffe, 55, to 60 months
followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $203,616 in
restitution. He pleaded guilty on August 29, 2023.

According to court records, from January to November 2020 McAuliffe filed false claims
for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. He filed fraudulent applications for UI
payments with the Maine Department of Labor, Bureau of Unemployment
Compensation using others’ personal identifying information without their knowledge
and consent. As a part of the scheme, he caused fraudulent applications for replacement
drivers licenses to be filed with the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles and changed the
drivers’ mailing addresses, using the falsified licenses as proof of identification in
support of the fraudulent UI claims. McAuliffe had the UI benefits loaded onto debit
cards and wired into an account he opened in another person’s name and withdrew the
funds at ATMs in Arizona. At the time of his arrest, McAuliffe was living in Kansas.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Inspection
Service investigated the case.
“The prosecution of Mr. McAuliffe is one of numerous cases brought by the Department
of Justice nationwide to bring to justice those who sought to exploit COVID-19 relief
fund programs,” said U.S. Attorney Darcie N. McElwee. “To those who defrauded and
stole from American taxpayers in the middle of a global crisis, you should expect that
our Office and the Department of Justice will do everything possible to hold you
accountable.”

“James McAuliffe engaged in a scheme to obtain unemployment insurance benefits by
submitting fraudulent claims using the stolen identities of Maine residents and others.
McAuliffe stole federal benefits intended to assist unemployed American workers
struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue to work with our law
enforcement partners to safeguard Department of Labor programs from those who seek
to exploit them,” said Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent-in-Charge, Northeast
Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

Coordinated, nationwide enforcement action to combat COVID-19 fraud: On
August 23, 2023 the Justice Department announced the results of a coordinated,
nationwide enforcement action to combat COVID-19 fraud, which included 718
enforcement actions – including federal criminal charges against 371 defendants – for
offenses related to over $836 million in alleged COVID-19 fraud. The Justice Department
has now seized over $1.4 billion in COVID-19 relief funds that criminals had stolen and
charged over 3,000 defendants with crimes in federal districts across the country. Many
of the cases in the enforcement action involve charges related to pandemic
unemployment insurance benefit fraud and fraud against the two largest pandemic
Small Business Administration programs: the Paycheck Protection Program and
Economic Injury Disaster Loans. Additional matters involved pandemic healthcare billing
fraud, fraud against the Emergency Rental Assistance program, and fraud committed
against the IRS Employee Retention Credit program (ERC), a refundable tax credit for
businesses and tax-exempt organizations that had employees and were affected during
the COVID-19 pandemic.

                                         ###

Contact
Sean M. Green, Assistant United States Attorney (207-780-3257)

Updated January 16, 2024

Topics
CORONAVIRUS
FINANCIAL FRAUD

IDENTITY THEFT


Component
USAO - Maine


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