U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Marion Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Fraud (ND-IA 08/25/20121) (2021-08-26)
Summary
A Department of Justice press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Iowa, dated August 25, 2021, announcing that Brian Lynn Whorton, age 55, from Marion, Iowa, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. The release states that Whorton pleaded guilty on January 25, 2021 to one count of wire fraud. According to the release, Whorton received over $13,000 in CARES Act unemployment funds from the State of Arizona without entitlement and used a Bitcoin ATM to send funds to other participants in the scheme. The sentence includes $13,740 in restitution to the Arizona Department of Economic Security and a two-year term of supervised release. The case file number is 20-CR-64.
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“U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Marion Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Fraud (ND-IA 08/25/20121) (2021-08-26).”
Original at www.oig.dol.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/u-s-department-of-labor-oig-marion-man-sentenced-to-federal-prison-for-44b90eecc6/
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Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Iowa
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Marion Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for COVID-19
Unemployment Benefits Fraud
A man who received over $13,000 in fraudulently obtained CARES Act unemployment funds was
sentenced today to nine months in federal prison.
Brian Lynn Whorton, age 55, from Marion, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 25, 2021
guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
Information from sentencing and a criminal complaint showed that Whorton received over $13,000
in unemployment funds to which he was not entitled from the State of Arizona. Whorton withdrew
some of the funds in cash and used a Bitcoin ATM to send the funds to other participants in the
scheme. Whorton kept some of the funds for himself.
Whorton was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J.
Williams. Whorton was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. He was ordered to make $13,740
in restitution the Arizona Department of Economic Security. He must also serve a two-year term of
supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Whorton was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marshal on
September 10, 2021.
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.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kyndra Lundquist and investigated by
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector
General.
Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
The case file number is 20-CR-64.
Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.
Topic(s):
Coronavirus
Financial Fraud
Component(s):
USAO - Iowa, Northern
Updated August 25, 2021
File and source
- File
- 2021-08-26-Marion-Man-Sentenced-to-Federal-Prison-for-COVID-19-Unemployment-Benefits-Fraud-ND-IA-08-25-20121.pdf
- Size
- 86,397 bytes
- SHA-256
- 6db544f4b65e71eb262560ae47ff2b74e8e1dd20db3e3f22430fc1bb29d91211
- Original
- www.oig.dol.gov