Information — United States of America v. Morton Chirnomas
Summary
An Information in United States v. Morton Chirnomas in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, filed after he waived prosecution by indictment and charging wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 2. It sets out the background of pandemic unemployment insurance under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the CARES Act and of the SBA's COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans. The Information alleges that from about May 2020 through about September 2020 Chirnomas and others applied for unemployment benefits and EIDLs in their own and others' names without consent, using false information. It states that Chirnomas obtained more than $300,000, and cites a wire on or about July 22, 2020.
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
- Captured
- 2026-09-25
- Source site
- www-justice-gov
Archived web capture. Preserved source — captured from www-justice-gov; archived 2026-09-25.
Full text
2023R00674/ADK
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA : Hon.
:
v. : Criminal No. 23-
:
MORTON CHIRNOMAS : 18 U.S.C. §§ 1343 and 2
INFORMATION
The defendant having waived in open court prosecution by Indictment,
the United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey charges:
BACKGROUND
1. At various times relevant to this Information:
a. Defendant MORTON CHIRNOMAS (“CHIRNOMAS”) was a
resident of Passaic County, New Jersey.
b. On March 18, 2020, the Families First Coronavirus
Response Act (“FFCRA”) was signed into law. The FFCRA provided additional
flexibility for state Unemployment Insurance (“UI”) agencies and additional
administrative funding to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
c. On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security (“CARES”) Act was signed into law. The CARES Act
expanded States’ ability to provide assistance to workers impacted by COVID-
19, including for workers who were not ordinarily eligible for UI benefits
(“UIBs”). The CARES Act provided for three new temporary UI programs:
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (“PUA”); Pandemic Emergency
Unemployment Compensation (“PEUC”); and Federal Pandemic Unemployment
Compensation (“FPUC”).
d. On August 8, 2020, after the FPUC program expired, a
Presidential Memorandum authorized the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (“FEMA”) to use disaster relief funds to provide supplemental payments
for lost wages to help ease the financial burden on individuals who were
unemployed as a result of COVID-19. The Lost Wages Assistance Program
(“LWA”) served as a temporary measure, if a State Workforce Agency (“SWA”)
chose to administer it, to provide an additional $300 per week to eligible
applicants. The period of assistance for LWA was August 1, 2020 to December
27, 2020, or termination of the program, whichever was sooner.
e. The SWA was responsible for distributing funds provided
through the PUA, PEUC, and FPUC programs. These funds were received by
the SWA from the United States Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”). When
an SWA approved a UIB application, the SWA caused money to be transferred
to the applicant, often by causing a credit/debit card to be mailed to the
address requested by the applicant.
f. The Ohio Department of Job & Family Services, Office of
Workforce Development (the “Department”), administered and managed the
regular and other UIB programs for the State of Ohio. The Department offered
an online portal (the “Portal”) through which applicants could apply for UIBs
and other benefits. The servers that hosted the Portal were located within New
Jersey.
2
g. The CARES Act also enabled the Small Business
Association (“SBA”) to offer funding through the COVID-19 Economic Injury
Disaster Loans (“EIDL”) program to business owners negatively affected by
the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. From at least as early as in or around May 2020 through in or
around September 2020, in Passaic County, in District of New Jersey, and
elsewhere, the defendant,
MORTON CHIRNOMAS,
did knowingly and intentionally devise and intend to devise a scheme and
artifice to defraud the SBA, SWAs, and others, and to obtain property and
money by means of materially false and fraudulent pretenses, representations,
and promises, and, for the purpose of executing and attempting to execute
such scheme and artifice to defraud, did transmit and cause to be transmitted
by means of wire communications in interstate and foreign commerce, certain
writings, signs, signals, pictures, and sounds, including a wire communication
on June 23, 2020 from a location outside of New Jersey to a location inside of
New Jersey, as more fully set forth below.
GOAL OF THE SCHEME TO DEFRAUD
3. The object of the scheme and artifice to defraud was for
CHIRNOMAS to enrich himself by fraudulently obtaining UIBs and EIDLs.
MANNER AND MEANS OF THE SCHEME TO DEFRAUD
4. It was part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that:
3
a. Chirnomas and others applied for UIBs in others’ names
without their knowledge or consent.
b. Chirnomas and others provided false information in the UIB
applications inducing certain SWAs to approve the applications.
c. Chirnomas and others applied for EIDLs in their own and
others’ names without their knowledge or consent.
d. Chirnomas and others provided false information in the
EIDL applications inducing the SBA to approve the loan applications.
e. Chirnomas and others provided information in the
applications causing the SBA and SWAs to send assistance funds to financial
accounts Chirnomas controlled.
f. Chirnomas obtained more than $300,000 through the
fraudulent scheme.
4
5. On or about July 22, 2020, for the purpose of executing the
scheme and artifice to defraud, in the District of New Jersey and elsewhere, the
defendant,
MORTON CHIRNOMAS,
knowingly and intentionally transmitted and caused to be transmitted by
means of wire communication in interstate and foreign commerce, certain
writings, signs, signals, pictures, and sounds, namely a wire communication
submitting an application for UIBs, from a location outside of New Jersey to a
location inside of New Jersey.
In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343 and Section 2.
5
FORFEITURE ALLEGATION
1. The allegations contained in this Information are incorporated by
reference as though set forth in full herein for the purpose of alleging forfeiture
pursuant to Title 18, United States Code, Section 981(a)(1)(C), and Title 28,
United States Code, Section 2461(c).
2. Upon conviction of the offense charged in this Information, the
government will seek forfeiture from defendant CHIRNOMAS, in accordance
with Title 18, United States Code, Section 981(a)(1)(C), and Title 28, United
States Code, Section 2461(c), of any and all property, real or personal, that
constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the violation of Title 18,
United States Code, Section 1343.
Substitute Assets Provision
3. If by any act or omission of defendant CHIRNOMAS any of the
property subject to forfeiture herein:
a. cannot be located upon the exercise of due diligence;
b. has been transferred or sold to, or deposited with, a third
party;
c. has been placed beyond the jurisdiction of the court;
d. has been substantially diminished in value; or
e. has been commingled with other property which cannot
be subdivided without difficulty,
6
it is the intent of the United States, pursuant to Title 21, United States Code,
Section 853(p), as incorporated by Title 28, United States Code, Section
2461(c), to seek forfeiture of any other property of defendant CHIRNOMAS up
to the value of the property described in this forfeiture allegation.
_____________________________________
PHILIP R. SELLINGER
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY
7
File and source
- File
- dl_317c0967e80d97ba.pdf
- Size
- 119,564 bytes
- SHA-256
- 26f552c61132050aff64381b5de6eed8464017391921535f54ad1c01d9cebaa4
- Our copy
- dl_317c0967e80d97ba.pdf
- Original
- www.justice.gov