U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Two Capital Region Men Plead Guilty to Unemployment Insurance Fraud Conspiracy (USAO ND-NY 03/06/2023) (2023-03-08)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York, dated March 6, 2023, announcing that Taquan Parker, age 26, of Rensselaer, and Olajuwon Sutherland, also known as Suave, age 27, of Troy, pled guilty in a scheme to obtain more than $100,000 in unemployment insurance benefits under the names of other people. Parker admitted providing Kahleke Taylor with personal identifying information that Taylor used to file false claims with the New York State Department of Labor, which paid out $60,132; Parker agreed to pay $60,132 in restitution and forfeit $30,000. Sutherland admitted also providing Taylor with personal identifying information, resulting in $48,008 in payments, and agreed to restitution of $48,008 and forfeiture of $12,000. Taylor previously pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $207,004.

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


Two Capital Region Men Plead Guilty to
Unemployment Insurance Fraud Conspiracy
Monday, March 6, 2023

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

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Taquan Parker, age 26, of Rensselaer, New York, and Olajuwon
Sutherland, a/k/a “Suave,” age 27, of Troy, New York, pled guilty today to engaging in a
fraudulent scheme to obtain more than $100,000 in unemployment insurance benefits
under the names of other people, including benefits funded by the federal government
in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

As part of his guilty plea to conspiracy and mail fraud charges, Parker admitted that he
provided Kahleke Taylor, a/k/a “Flex,” with the personal identifying information of two
other people, which Taylor used to file false claims online with the New York State
Department of Labor (NYSDOL). Parker further admitted that as a result of the
fraudulent applications submitted by Taylor, the NYSDOL paid out $60,132 in
unemployment insurance benefits. Parker agreed to pay $60,132 in restitution to the
State of New York and forfeit $30,000 in fraud proceeds that he personally obtained.

As part of his guilty plea to conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud charges, Sutherland
admitted that he also provided Taylor with the personal identifying information of two
other people, which Taylor used to file false claims online with the NYSDOL. Sutherland
further admitted that as a result of the fraudulent applications submitted by Taylor, the
NYSDOL paid out $48,008 in unemployment insurance benefits. Sutherland agreed to
pay $48,008 in restitution to the State of New York and forfeit $12,000 in fraud proceeds
that he personally obtained.
Taylor previously pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $207,004 in unemployment
insurance benefits as part of the scheme.

At sentencing, both Parker and Sutherland face a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a
fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. Parker and
Sutherland are scheduled to be sentenced on July 6 and July 12, 2023, respectively, by
United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a
judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S.
Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

This case was investigated by HSI, the New York State Inspector General’s Office,
USDOL-OIG, and USPIS, with assistance from the NYSDOL Office of Special
Investigations and the Schenectady County Department of Social Services. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Joshua R. Rosenthal is prosecuting 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.


Updated March 6, 2023


File and source

File

2023-03-08-Two-Capital-Region-Men-Plead-Guilty-to-Unemployment-Insurance-Fraud-Conspiracy-USAO-ND-NY-03-06-202.pdf

Size

146,762 bytes

SHA-256

06dbb0bffcc463532341e00d8eb06591a15732e6e30d82fbc590823126ebe04d

Our copy

2023-03-08-Two-Capital-Region-Men-Plead-Guilty-to-Unemployment-Insurance-Fraud-Conspiracy-USAO-ND-NY-03-06-202.pdf

Original

www.oig.dol.gov