Three Sentenced for $30 Million COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud (Office of Public Affairs, May 23, 2025)

Summary

Justice Department press release of May 23, 2025 on the sentencing of three people for defrauding the Georgia Department of Labor of unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Macovian Doston of Vienna, Georgia, received 15 years in prison, Shatara Hubbard of Warner Robins 6 years and Torella Wynn of Cordele one year, each followed by three years of supervised release. According to court documents, from March 2020 through November 2022 they and others caused more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment claims to be filed, resulting in at least $30 million in stolen benefits. They created fictitious employers and used personal information of identity theft victims, some of it taken from an Atlanta-area hospital network's databases by a paid employee.

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PRESS RELEASE

Three Sentenced for $30 Million COVID-19
Unemployment Fraud
Friday, May 23, 2025

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

Three individuals were sentenced yesterday for their participation in a scheme to
defraud the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL), out of tens of millions of dollars in
benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Macovian Doston, 31, of Vienna, Georgia, was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed
by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be
determined at a later date.

Shatara Hubbard, 36, of Warner Robins, Georgia, was sentenced to 6 years in prison
followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in an
amount to be determined at a later date.

Torella Wynn, 33, of Cordele, Georgia, was sentenced to one year in prison followed
by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be
determined at a later date.

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from March 2020
through November 2022, Doston, Hubbard, Wynn and their co-conspirators caused
more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims to be filed with the
GaDOL, resulting in at least $30 million in stolen benefits.

To execute the scheme, the defendants and their co-conspirators created fictitious
employers and fabricated lists of purported employees using personally identifiable
information (PII) from thousands of identity theft victims and filed fraudulent
unemployment insurance claims on the GaDOL website. The conspirators obtained PII
for use in the scheme from a variety of sources, including by paying an employee of an
Atlanta-area health care and hospital network to unlawfully obtain patients’ PII from the
hospital’s databases, and by purchasing PII from other sources over the internet. Using
victims’ PII, Doston, Hubbard, Wynn and their co-conspirators caused the stolen UI
funds to be disbursed via prepaid debit cards mailed to various locations.

“The defendants orchestrated a $30 million fraud by using stolen identities to obtain
thousands of unemployment insurance payouts under false pretenses,” said Matthew R.
Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division will
continue to aggressively combat complex frauds that waste public funds. I thank the
prosecutors and our law enforcement partners for their diligence and dedication to
seeking justice for the United States.”

“Macovian Doston, Shatara Hubbard, and Torella Wynn engaged in a scheme to defraud
the GaDOL by creating several fictitious employer accounts. After creating the fictitious
accounts, the defendants submitted thousands of fraudulent UI claims to GaDOL to
obtain UI benefits in the names of identity theft victims and other unwitting individuals
who were not entitled to such benefits. The identity theft victims and unwitting
participants were purported employees of several fictitious companies, which were
created to execute this fraud scheme. We will continue to work with our law
enforcement partners to protect the integrity of the UI system from those who exploit
this benefit program,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Mathew Broadhurst of the
Southeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

“These sentences underline our dedication to holding people accountable who exploit
federal relief programs for personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Ulrich
of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. “As proven in this case, our
criminal investigators and the legal teams at the Department of Justice will diligently
pursue anyone who attempts to commit fraud and exploit programs created to help
legitimate people and businesses affected by the global pandemic.”

“DHS OIG will continue to investigate the misuse of COVID pandemic funds and
together with our law enforcement partners, hold fraudsters accountable.” said U.S.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, PH.d.

The court previously sentenced four other co-conspirators that were charged in the Nov.
8, 2022 indictment. In Oct. 2024, Tyshion Nautese Hicks, 32, of Vienna, Georgia was
sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In Sept.
2024, Kenya Whitehead, 37, of Cordele, Georgia was sentenced to 28 months in prison
followed by three years of supervised release. In Oct. 2024, A’Darrion Alexander, 29, of
Warner Robins, Georgia was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years
of supervised release. In May 2024, Membrish Brown, 29, of Vienna, Georgia was
sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
DOL-OIG, IRS-CI, USPS-OIG, USPIS, USSS, HSI, and DHS-OIG investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Lyndie Freeman, Siji Moore, Matthew Kahn, and Andrew Jaco of the
Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted 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 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 via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at www.justice.gov/disaster-
fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Updated May 23, 2025

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

DISASTER FRAUD
Components
Criminal Division
Criminal - Criminal Fraud Section
Department of Justice

Press Release Number: 25-551

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