U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Couple charged with using fictitious employer accounts and stolen identities to fraudulently obtain more than $1.5 million in Unemployment Insurance benefits (USAO ND-GA 09/14/2022) (2022-09-15)

Summary

A September 14, 2022 press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia announcing the indictment of Shenita Daniel, of Atlanta, and Wayne A. Lowe Jr., of Union City, Georgia, on conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit money laundering charges. According to the release, starting in June 2020 the two created fictitious employer accounts with the Georgia Department of Labor listing stolen identities as purported employees, then filed unemployment insurance claims in those names, and the agency paid more than $1.5 million. The release states that from December 2020 the defendants deposited proceeds into an account of Simplicity Cares LTD and paid themselves payroll. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tracia M. King and Kelly K. Connors are prosecuting.

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U.S. Attorneys » Northern District of Georgia » News

                                    Department of Justice
                                    U.S. Attorney’s Office
                                  Northern District of Georgia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Couple charged with using fictitious employer accounts and
  stolen identities to fraudulently obtain more than $1.5
       million in Unemployment Insurance benefits
ATLANTA - Shenita Daniel and Wayne A. Lowe, Jr., have been indicted for allegedly using
numerous stolen identities to fraudulently claim Unemployment Insurance (“UI”) benefits under
fictitious employer accounts registered with the Georgia Department of Labor. The scheme
resulted in the fraudulent payment of more than $1.5 million in UI benefits, including Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance and Lost Wage Assistance – programs that were created and
expanded to assist individuals experiencing unemployment due to the COVID-19
pandemic.

“During the height of the pandemic in 2020, criminals exploited the availability of COVID-19
unemployment benefits to illegally enrich themselves,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K.
Buchanan. “The defendants allegedly used the identities of numerous victims to illegally obtain
proceeds meant to help citizens who desperately needed these funds to support themselves and
their families during a time of emotional and economic crisis. In doing so, hey diverted more
than $1.5 million in government benefits.”

“An important mission of the Office of Inspector General is to investigate allegations of fraud
related to unemployment insurance benefit programs. We will continue to work with our law
enforcement partners to investigate these types of allegations," said Mathew Broadhurst, Special
Agent-in-Charge, Atlanta Region, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General.

“The defendants share one trait in common – greed,” said Special Agent in Charge James E.
Dorsey, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office. “Their desire for money, power and
material items, drove them to perpetrate crimes against our unemployment insurance system and
prey upon many individuals within our community. The financial expertise and diligence of
IRS-CI special agents and partnership with other federal and state law enforcement officers we
collectively uncovered these schemes, and now these criminals face the consequences of their
actions.”

Dr. Joseph V. Cuffari, Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, stated, “The
DHS Office of Inspector General will continue to prioritize investigations of individuals who
take advantage of programs meant to help those in need and work with our law enforcement
partners to bring those who commit fraud to justice.”

“These two individuals stole money from the COVID-19 unemployment insurance program
during the pandemic for their own financial gain,” said Tommy D. Coke, Inspector-in-Charge of
the Atlanta Division, U.S. Postal Inspection Service. “The U.S. Postal Inspection Service
remains committed to working with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute
individuals who exploited this program which was designed to assist hard working Americans
that were suffering from financial hardships.”

“Along with being tasked by the federal government to provide financial assistance to those
unemployed through no fault of their own, it is equally important for our agency to uphold the
integrity of the program by monitoring each of the stakeholders for truthful and accurate
information,” said Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. “We were glad to be a partner in
potentially bringing justice to an unjust situation meant to extort state and federal dollars for
wrongful gain.”

According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the charges, and other information presented in court:
Starting in June 2020, Shenita Daniel and Wayne A. Lowe, Jr. allegedly created several fictitious
employer accounts with the Georgia Department of Labor. Through these accounts, they
submitted false information to the Georgia Department of Labor that was used, in part, to
determine whether persons associated with the employer were entitled to receive benefits. This
information included the names and personal identifying information for purported employees,
which were actually stolen identities of individuals who had no knowledge of the scheme and did
not consent to the use of their information. Daniel and Lowe also allegedly submitted false hiring
dates and false quarterly wage information for the purported employees.

Within a few days of creating these fictitious employer accounts, claims for UI benefits were
allegedly submitted to the Georgia Department of Labor using the stolen identities of persons
listed as purported employees of the sham companies.

In addition to filing fraudulent claims for UI benefits in Georgia, Daniel and Lowe allegedly
used some of the same stolen identities to submit fraudulent claims for UI benefits in California.

The Georgia Department of Labor approved and paid UI claims through the issuance of debit
cards mailed to various addresses in the metro-Atlanta area. The Georgia Department of Labor
paid more than $1.5 million in UI benefits as a result of the scheme.

Daniel and Lowe allegedly withdrew the fraudulently obtained proceeds through transactions at
retail stores, restaurants, and ATM cash withdrawals. Starting in December 2020, they began
making large monthly cash deposits of the fraud proceeds into a bank account for a company
called Simplicity Cares LTD. Daniel was listed as the company’s Chief Executive Officer, and
Lowe was listed as the company’s Chief Financial Officer.

Prior to December 2020, Daniel and Lowe never received payroll payments from this bank
account. Daniel and Lowe allegedly started making payroll payments to themselves after
the large cash deposits began.

The indictment charges Shenita Daniel, 42, of Atlanta, Georgia, and Wayne A. Lowe Jr., 43, of
Union City, Georgia, with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and
conspiracy to commit money laundering. Members of the public are reminded that the indictment
only contains charges. The defendants are presumed innocent of the charges, and it will be the
government’s burden to prove the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General,
the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
(“DHS”) – Office of Inspector General, and the United States Postal Inspection Service. Special
assistance was provided by the Georgia Department of Labor and the U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tracia M. King and Kelly K. Connors are prosecuting the case.

This investigation was sponsored by the Georgia Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force.
The mission of the Task Force is to combat fraud schemes targeting the Unemployment
Insurance Benefits program, which is federally and state funded, and administered by the
Georgia Department of Labor.

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

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.


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