U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Queens Man Sentenced to 39 Months for Pandemic-Related Fraud (USAO ND-NY 01/04/2023) (2023-01-09)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York, dated January 4, 2023, announcing that Melvin Ansong, age 27, of Corona, New York, was sentenced to 39 months in prison for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. The release states that, as part of a July 25, 2021 guilty plea, Ansong admitted obtaining $165,182 in unemployment insurance benefits from the New York State Department of Labor in the names of 13 other people and $18,480 from the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Ansong also admitted obtaining an $8,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration by claiming ownership of a pet grooming company that did not exist. United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino imposed 1 year of supervised release and restitution of $165,182, $18,480 and $8,000.

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

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                 Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Queens Man Sentenced to 39 Months for Pandemic-Related
Fraud
ALBANY, NEW YORK – Melvin Ansong, age 27, of Corona, New York, was sentenced today to 39
months in prison for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with schemes
in which he obtained more than $190,000 in unemployment insurance benefits and government-
backed loans meant to provide relief from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement was made by United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman; Jonathan Mellone,
Special Agent in Charge, New York Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General
(USDOL-OIG); Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of Homeland
Security Investigations (HSI); and Ketty Larco-Ward, Inspector in Charge of the Boston Division of
the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

As part of his July 25, 2021 guilty plea, Ansong admitted that he fraudulently obtained $165,182 in
unemployment insurance benefits from the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) in the
names of 13 other people and an additional $18,480 in benefits from the Arizona Department of
Economic Security in the name of another person. Ansong further admitted that he fraudulently
obtained an $8,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration
(SBA) by claiming that he owned a pet grooming company when in fact no such company existed.
United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also sentenced Ansong to 1 year of supervised
release, to begin following his term of imprisonment, and ordered him to pay restitution in the
amounts of $165,182 to the State of New York, $18,480 to the State of Arizona, and $8,000 to the
SBA.

The case was investigated by USDOL-OIG, USPIS, and HSI, with assistance from U.S. Customs and
Border Protection’s New York Field Office and the NYSDOL’s Office of Special Investigations. The
case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping and Joshua R.
Rosenthal.

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.
Topic(s):
Coronavirus
Financial Fraud
Identity Theft

Component(s):
USAO - New York, Northern


File and source

File

2023-01-09-Queens-Man-Sentenced-to-39-Months-for-Pandemic-Related-Fraud-USAO-ND-NY-01-04-2023.pdf

Size

61,616 bytes

SHA-256

5ebda56e5f9e7a7efe8ef29d61932901260dba9f329adb1e11a37f1e9594a2f8

Our copy

2023-01-09-Queens-Man-Sentenced-to-39-Months-for-Pandemic-Related-Fraud-USAO-ND-NY-01-04-2023.pdf

Original

www.oig.dol.gov