U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Tracy Woman Pleads Guilty to Fraudulent Scheme to Steal California Unemployment Insurance Benefits (USAO ED-CA 02/13/2024) (2024-02-14)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California, dated February 13, 2024, announcing that Kaymeisha Keyes, 32, most recently of Tracy, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. According to court documents, between April 2020 and August 2021 Keyes filed over 70 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with the California Employment Development Department using other people's names, birth dates and Social Security numbers. The release states that Keyes submitted images of fake driver's licenses and photos to ID.me, the company EDD used for identity verification, so that fake and stolen identities would be verified. The scheme sought over $2 million and caused actual losses exceeding $1.1 million, and sentencing is scheduled for May 11, 2024.

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Full text

PRESS RELEASE



Tracy Woman Pleads Guilty to
Fraudulent Scheme to Steal
California Unemployment
Insurance Benefits
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of California

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Kaymeisha Keyes, 32, most recently of Tracy, pleaded guilty
today to one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft, U.S.
Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, between April 2020 and August 2021, Keyes executed a
scheme to defraud the California Employment Development Department (EDD) by filing
over 70 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with EDD, seeking Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance and other benefits under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security (CARES) Act. During the scheme, Keyes collected personally
identifiable information of numerous individuals — including names, birth dates, and
Social Security numbers — and used their identities to file fraudulent unemployment
insurance claims. The filings represented, among other things, that the claimants had
recently lost employment or were unable to find employment due to the COVID-19
pandemic. These unemployment insurance claims were fraudulent because, for example,
the claimants were not unemployed, they were not eligible for California unemployment
insurance benefits, or Keyes did not have authority to file claims on their behalf.

Since at least October 2021, EDD partnered with ID.me — a private company used by
the EDD for ID verification of claimants — to implement a system for verifying claimant
identities before EDD can process unemployment insurance claims. In executing this
fraudulent scheme, Keyes submitted false information to ID.me that allowed fake and
stolen identities to be verified. This false information included images of fake driver’s
licenses that contained photos of Keyes and co-schemers and the names of the
purported claimants. She also submitted photos of herself and co-schemers that were
used to verify the photos on the fake driver’s licenses. Once these false identities were
verified, Keyes filed the fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with EDD under the
same identities.

In the fraudulent unemployment insurance applications, Keyes requested that the
unemployment insurance benefits be mailed to various addresses under her control,
including her residence in Tracy. EDD approved dozens of the fraudulent claims and
authorized Bank of America to mail out EDD debit cards containing unemployment
insurance benefits. Keyes then activated the EDD debit cards and spent the benefits on
herself. The scheme sought over $2 million in unemployment insurance benefits and
caused EDD and the United States to incur actual losses exceeding $1.1 million.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Office of Correctional Safety,
and the California EDD – Investigation Division with assistance from the U.S. Department
of Labor Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise N. Yasinow is
prosecuting the case.

Keyes is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez on May 11,
2024. Keyes faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine
on the wire fraud count. She faces a two-year mandatory prison sentence on the
aggravated identity theft count, which must run consecutive to any sentence received
on the wire fraud count. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the
discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the
Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

This case is prosecuted as part of the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike
Force, one of five interagency COVID-19 fraud strike force teams established by the
Department of Justice. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and
prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California. The strike forces
focus on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal
organizations and transnational actors. The strike forces are interagency law
enforcement efforts, using prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams designed to
identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds.

Updated February 13, 2024

Topics
CORONAVIRUS

FINANCIAL FRAUD
IDENTITY THEFT


Component
USAO - California, Eastern


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