Man Pleads Guilty to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud
Summary
Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, dated February 26, 2026. Justin Heimbach entered a guilty plea before United States District Judge John M. Younge to six counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud. The release says the indictment of August 2024 arose from schemes to defraud the federal government, through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applications filed in the names of individuals allegedly no longer employed by TeamKJ Construction, and multiple Lehigh Valley car dealerships. Sentencing is scheduled for June 11, 2026.
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“Man Pleads Guilty to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud.”
Original at www.oig.dol.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/2026-03-04-lehigh-valley-man-pleads-guilty-to-pandemic-unemployment-as-a597624c90/
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PRESS RELEASE Lehigh Valley Man Pleads Guilty to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud and Defrauding Local Car Dealerships Thursday, February 26, 2026 For Immediate Release U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Justin Heimbach, 34, of Bath, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge John M. Younge on six counts of mail fraud and four counts of wire fraud. The defendant was charged with those offenses by indictment in August 2024, arising from his schemes to defraud the federal government and multiple local car dealerships. In March of 2020, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which created the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA). The PUA program provided unemployment benefits to individuals not eligible for regular unemployment compensation, or extended unemployment benefits. As detailed in court filings and admitted to by the defendant, Heimbach, who operated a construction company called TeamKJ Construction, engaged in a scheme that caused fraudulent PUA applications to be filed in the names of individuals allegedly no longer employed by TeamKJ as a result of COVID-19. In reality, the applications contained a number of materially false statements, including that the applicant had lost their job with TeamKJ as a result of COVID-19 and the date the applicant lost their job with TeamKJ due to the pandemic. In addition, Heimbach successfully defrauded multiple Lehigh Valley car dealerships by purchasing vehicles in the names of other construction companies registered to or associated with him, and writing checks for those vehicles on bank accounts that had an insufficient balance to cover the transaction. The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on June 11, 2026. This case was jointly investigated by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, and FBI Philadelphia’s Allentown Resident Agency and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney S. Chandler Harris. Contact USAPAE.PressBox@usdoj.gov 215-861-8300 Updated February 26, 2026
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