Alabama Woman Sentenced To 18 Monthsʼ Imprisonment For COVID-19 Unemployment Insurance Fraud Scheme
Summary
A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Tennessee, dated July 24, 2024, announcing that Meghan Pittman of Stevenson, Alabama was sentenced that day by United States District Judge Curtis L. Collier to 18 months' imprisonment and five years of supervised release. Pittman pled guilty to wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343, and was ordered to pay $85,011 in restitution to the Pennsylvania and California Departments of Labor and to forfeit $85,011 as a money judgment. The release states, citing court documents, that from June 2020 through June 2021 Pittman used others' personal information to make online unemployment applications in several states, and the states mailed debit cards to addresses in the Eastern District of Tennessee. The release states that the scheme involved over $550,000 in funds.
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“Alabama Woman Sentenced To 18 Monthsʼ Imprisonment For COVID-19 Unemployment Insurance Fraud Scheme.”
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PRESS RELEASE
Alabama Woman Sentenced To 18
Monthsʼ Imprisonment For
COVID-19 Unemployment
Insurance Fraud Scheme
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Tennessee
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - On July 24, 2024, Meghan Pittman, 29, of Stevenson, Alabama,
was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment by the Honorable Curtis L. Collier, United
States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Tennessee at Chattanooga. Following her imprisonment, she will be on supervised
release for five years.
As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Pittman pled guilty to wire fraud, in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 for her involvement in a scheme to defraud COVID-19
unemployment programs in several states. In addition, Pittman was ordered to pay
$85,011 in restitution to the Pennsylvania and California Departments of Labor, and to
forfeit to the United States $85,011 as part of a money judgment.
According to court documents, from June 2020 through June 2021, Pittman conspired
with others to devise a scheme in which she defrauded the United States government
and the governments of Tennessee, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and California to obtain
money from the states’ COVID relief programs in the form of unemployment insurance
proceeds funded by the United States government. Specifically, Pittman acquired
personal information from others and used it to fraudulently make mass online
applications for money earmarked by the states to provide unemployment insurance
relief for those affected by the national pandemic. She falsely claimed in the
applications that the individuals whose personal information was reflected on the
applications worked in those states. The states then mailed debit cards to addresses in
the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Pittman would receive a percentage of the payout
of the fraudulent claim. The defendant was personally responsible for the fraudulent
distribution of over $85,000 of unemployment protection insurance funds. The scheme
itself involved the fraudulent distribution of over $550,000 in unemployment protection
insurance funds.
United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III, of the Eastern District of Tennessee,
Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent-in-Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Department of
Labor, Office of Inspector General, and Special Agent in Charge Joseph E. Carrico of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation made the announcement.
Assistant United States Attorney Steven Neff represented the United States.
The conviction was the result of an investigation conducted by the Department of Labor
Office of Inspector General and the FBI as part of the Smoky Mountains Financial Crimes
Task Force.
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 the 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.
###
Contact
Rachelle Barnes
Public Affairs Officer
(865) 545-4167
Updated July 24, 2024
Topics
CORONAVIRUS
FINANCIAL FRAUD
Components
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
USAO - Tennessee, Eastern
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