U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Two felons sentenced to prison for scheme to steal thousands in COVID-19 unemployment insurance funds (USAO SD-GA 06/29/2021) (2021-06-30)

Summary

A press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Georgia, dated June 29, 2021, announcing that Malik Abdul McCaully, 43, of Tampa, Fla., and Tamesha Lashelle Brown, 41, of Dade City, Fla., were each sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to Informations charging conspiracy to commit offenses including mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, disaster relief fraud and access device fraud. U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. ordered each to pay $137,195 in restitution to the state of Pennsylvania. According to court documents as described, from about July to October 2020 McCaully and Brown used victims' personal identifying information to file fraudulent unemployment applications and obtained bank cards preloaded with more than $130,000. Both were taken into custody after a crash in Pooler, Georgia on Oct. 3, 2020.

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                                      Department of Justice

                                        U.S. Attorney’s Office

                                     Southern District of Georgia

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                   Tuesday, June 29, 2021



       Two felons sentenced to prison for scheme to steal
    thousands in COVID-19 unemployment insurance funds
       Duo of long-time felons stole more than $130,000 in COVID benefits
SAVANNAH, GA: Two Florida residents who crashed their car while fleeing from a traffic stop
have been sentenced to federal prison for colluding in a scheme to steal pandemic unemployment
funds.

Malik Abdul McCaully, 43, of Tampa, Fla., and Tamesha Lashelle Brown, 41, of Dade City,
Fla., were sentenced to 60 months in prison after pleading guilty to Informations charging each of
them with conspiring to commit various offenses, including mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud,
disaster relief fraud, and access device fraud, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the
Southern District of Georgia. U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered each
defendant to pay $137,195 in restitution to the state of Pennsylvania, and to serve three years of
supervised release after completion of their prison terms.

There is no parole in the federal system.

“These two criminals used access to technology to scam money out of unemployment benefits
programs created specifically to help people who were struggling during the pandemic,” said Acting
U.S. Attorney Estes. “But all their high-tech scheming came to a crashing halt when they tried to
outrun police officers on I-95.”

As described in court documents and proceedings, McCaully and Brown’s criminal history spanned
decades. McCaully has 39 prior convictions, including convictions for cocaine trafficking, robbery,
and aggravated assault with a firearm. Brown, meanwhile, has 17 prior convictions that included
offenses for grand theft, delivering cocaine, and aggravated child abuse. From about July to October
2020, the two worked together to obtain victims’ personal identifying information, without those
individuals’ knowledge or consent, and then used that information to file fraudulent applications for
unemployment assistance, including with the State of Pennsylvania. The two posed as the applicants
when communicating with banks distributing the payments. After fraudulently obtaining bank cards
preloaded with more than $130,000 in unemployment insurance funds, Brown and McCaully
traveled to various ATMs in Pennsylvania, withdrawing thousands of dollars.

The two came to the attention of law enforcement in the early morning hours of Oct. 3, 2020, when a
vehicle driven by McCaully sped from an attempted traffic stop by Jasper County, S.C., sheriff’s
deputies on Interstate 95. McCaully eventually crashed the vehicle in Pooler, Georgia, and he – and
his passenger, Brown – were taken into custody. Inside the vehicle, law enforcement recovered more
than $20,000 in cash, dozens of prepaid debit cards issued by states’ unemployment insurance funds
in the names of others, as well as several false identifications that the two had used.

“These sentences take two career criminals off the street for a substantial amount of time, effectively
removing a threat against our law-abiding citizens,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of
FBI Atlanta. “Had it not been for the awareness of our local and state law enforcement partners, and
our federal partners, these two would have continued to target those in need of assistance and every
American taxpayer.”

“Those who prey on systems created to help our fellow man are among the most dastardly people we
have the duty to bring to justice,” said Steven Baisel, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Field
Office of the U.S. Secret Service. “They can’t outrun the long arm of the law.”

“Malik McCaully and Tamesha Brown engaged in a scheme to defraud the Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance program by submitting fraudulent claims for benefits using PII belonging other
individuals. Unemployment insurance programs exist to provide needed assistance to qualified
individuals who are unemployed or underemployed due to no fault of their own. Fraud against these
programs causes state workforce agencies, like the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, to redirect
valuable resources to address fraud to ensure benefits go to individuals who are eligible to receive
them. The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General will continue to work closely with
the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and our many law enforcement
partners to investigate those who exploit the unemployment insurance program,” said Rafiq Ahmad,
Special Agent-in-Charge, Atlanta Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

The FBI, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, with the
assistance of the Pooler Police Department, Port Wentworth Police Department, and the Georgia
State Patrol investigated the case. It was prosecuted for the United States by the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Southern District of Georgia.

Please report COVID-19 fraud, hoarding or price-gouging to the National Center for Disaster Fraud’s
National Hotline at (866) 720-5721, or go to justice.gov/disastercomplaintform.

Topic(s):
Coronavirus
Cyber Crime
Disaster Fraud
Identity Theft
Component(s):
USAO - Georgia, Southern
Press Release Number:
95-21
                                                                                  Updated June 29, 2021


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