U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Atlanta man sentenced for stealing identities to file false unemployment claims (USAO ND-GA 11/22/2023) (2023-11-30)

Summary

Press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, dated November 22, 2023, announcing the sentencing of Jeremy Graves of Atlanta for theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft tied to fraudulent Unemployment Insurance claims. According to the release, from about July 2020 until October 2020 Graves filed approximately 39 UI applications using 37 different stolen identities in Georgia, Arizona, California, Maryland, and Nevada, and received more than $200,000 in benefits from Georgia and California. U.S. District Judge Sarah E. Geraghty imposed three years, eleven months in prison, three years of supervised release, and $209,214 in restitution: $193,179 to the Georgia Department of Labor and $16,035 to California EDD. Graves was convicted on August 23, 2023, after pleading guilty.

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

Full text

PRESS RELEASE



Atlanta man sentenced for stealing
identities to file false unemployment
claims
Wednesday, November 22, 2023


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

ATLANTA - Jeremy Graves has been sentenced for theft of government funds and
aggravated identity theft for stealing identities to file fraudulent Unemployment
Insurance (“UI”) claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Congress enacted the CARES Act to provide federal funds to assist unemployed
workers during a national emergency,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “Graves
defrauded this critical program and stole the identities of others to perpetrate the
crime. Our office will continue to partner closely with federal, state, and local
investigators to prosecute individuals who commit benefits fraud at the expense of
citizens for whom this support is essential.”

“Jeremy Graves defrauded multiple state unemployment insurance (UI) systems by using
the personally identifying information (PII) of identity theft victims, including the PII of
deceased individuals, to submit fraudulent UI claims. DOL-OIG will continue to work
with our federal and state partners to protect the integrity of UI benefit programs,” said
Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent-in-Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Department of
Labor, Office of Inspector General.

According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges and other information presented in
court: During the period from about July 2020 until October 2020, Graves filed
approximately 39 UI applications, using 37 different stolen identities, in the states of
Georgia, Arizona, California, Maryland, and Nevada. He directed payment of the
benefits to designated debit cards. To conceal his identity, he directed the debit cards
to be sent to various addresses around the Atlanta area, all near or close by his
residence. He then fraudulently received more than $200,000 in UI benefits from the
states of Georgia and California.
Graves’s scheme unraveled when the Department of Labor, the agency who oversees
the UI program, determined that multiple applications in multiple states had been filed
from Graves’s residence. Graves had contacted a bank about multiple UI debit cards
issued to multiple individuals. A search of Graves’s cell phone revealed a search history
for “unemployment fraud,” “California unemployment,” and several of the addresses
where he directed the debit cards be sent.

Jeremy Graves, 39, of Atlanta, Georgia, has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sarah
E. Geraghty to three years, eleven months in prison to be followed by three years of
supervised release, and ordered to pay $209,214 in restitution; $193,179 to Georgia
Department of Labor and $16,035 to California EDD. Graves was convicted on the
charges on August 23, 2023, after he pleaded guilty.

This case was investigated by the Department of Labor - Office of Inspector General.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane C. Schulman 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, 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.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office
at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016. The Internet address for the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-
ndga.

Updated November 22, 2023
Topic
CORONAVIRUS
Component
USAO - Georgia, Northern


File and source

File

2023-11-30-Atlanta-man-sentenced-for-stealing-identities-to-file-false-unemployment-claims-USAO-ND-GA-11-22-20.pdf

Size

505,659 bytes

SHA-256

373078ad9338043403a4a1740d2e083e838b2422a22a1ac8e602b3c507c29230

Our copy

2023-11-30-Atlanta-man-sentenced-for-stealing-identities-to-file-false-unemployment-claims-USAO-ND-GA-11-22-20.pdf

Original

www.oig.dol.gov