Former Suffolk County Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to COVID Unemployment and Loan Fraud (April 2, 2026)

Summary

Press release of the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts, dated April 2, 2026. Jasmine Murphy, a former corrections officer, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to seven counts of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement to a financial institution, and Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled sentencing for July 9, 2026. The release says Murphy was indicted in December 2025 along with Christnel Orisca and obtained approximately $44,346 in unemployment benefits and small business loan funds to which entitlement was lacking. It also says Orisca pleaded guilty in November 2025 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12, 2026.

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PRESS RELEASE

Former Suffolk County Corrections Officer Pleads
Guilty to COVID Unemployment and Loan Fraud
Thursday, April 2, 2026

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


BOSTON – A former corrections officer employed by the Suffolk County Sherriff’s
Department pleaded guilty today in federal court in Boston to submitting fraudulent
information in an effort to obtain loans through CARES Act programs like the Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Jasmine Murphy, 39, of Boston, pleaded guilty to seven counts of wire fraud and one
count of making a false statement to a financial institution, arising out of PUA and PPP
loan benefits obtained prior to her employment at the Suffolk County Sherriff’s
Department and Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits obtained prior to, and during,
her employment there. U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns scheduled
sentencing for July 9, 2026. In December 2025, Murphy was indicted along with another
officer Christnel Orisca.

Murphy had been a Corrections Officer with the Suffolk County Sherriff’s Department
from approximately January 2022 to December 2024. Prior to her employment with the
Suffolk Sheriff’s Department, Murphy fraudulently applied for pandemic unemployment
and small business loan benefits while working for trucking and workforce services
companies. While working at the Sheriff’s Department, Murphy fraudulently collected UI
benefits for a brief period of time early in her tenure. In total, Murphy obtained
approximately $44,346 in unemployment benefits and small business loan funds to
which she was not entitled.

In their PUA applications, both Murphy and Orisca made fraudulent representations
about their employment status and thereafter falsely claimed, on a weekly basis, that
they did not work and did not receive any income during the prior week. In their PPP
loan applications, Murphy and Orisca submitted false statements to SBA-approved
lenders, including about the income and/or payroll of their purported small businesses,
in order to obtain their loans. According to the charging documents, they also made
false representations on forms submitted to request that their PPP loans be forgiven.
Orisca pleaded guilty in November 2025 and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 12,
2026.

The charge of wire fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years
of supervised release and a $250,000 fine. The charge of making false statements to a
financial institution provides for a sentence of up to 30 years in prison, five years of
supervised release and a $1 million fine. Sentences are imposed by a federal district
court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the
determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Anthony P. D’Esposito, Inspector General, U.S.
Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General; and Inspector General Joseph V.
Cuffari, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General made
the announcement today. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Boston Police Department
and the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department provided valuable assistance with the
investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dustin Chao, Chief of the Public Corruption &
Special Prosecutions Unit, is prosecuting the case.

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 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 and https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus/comb
atingfraud.

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 via the https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/webform/ncdf-disaster-
complaint-form.

Updated April 2, 2026


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