{"id":36640,"date":"2024-10-26T10:59:59","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T15:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/?p=36640"},"modified":"2024-10-26T10:59:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T15:59:59","slug":"georgia-woman-sentenced-to-12-years-for-30m-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-scheme-paid-a-mail-carrier-to-divert-debit-cards-with-512000-to-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/2024\/10\/26\/georgia-woman-sentenced-to-12-years-for-30m-covid-19-unemployment-fraud-scheme-paid-a-mail-carrier-to-divert-debit-cards-with-512000-to-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Woman Sentenced to 12 Years for $30M COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud Scheme – paid a mail carrier to divert debit cards with $512,000 to her"},"content":{"rendered":"

Georgia Woman Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for $30M COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud Scheme and Firearms Charge<\/span><\/h1>\n

10\/25\/24 – A Georgia woman was sentenced yesterday for her role in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL) out of tens of millions of dollars in benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Tyshion Nautese Hicks, 32, of Vienna, was sentenced to\u00a012 years in prison,\u00a0three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution\u00a0in an amount to be determined at a later date. Hicks\u2019 total sentence includes a penalty of\u00a0three consecutive years in prison, imposed yesterday in relation to a separate charge of illegal possession of a machine gun\u00a0prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.<\/p>\n

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from March 2020 through November 2022, Hicks and her co-conspirators caused more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims to be filed with the GaDOL, resulting in at least $30\u00a0million in stolen benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one of the largest COVID fraud schemes ever prosecuted, the defendant and her coconspirators filed more than 5,000 fraudulent COVID unemployment insurance claims using stolen identities and unlawfully obtained more than $30 million in benefits,\u201d said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department\u2019s Criminal Division. \u201cIn doing so, the defendant and her co-conspirators exploited a program designed to alleviate pandemic-related economic hardship to enrich themselves at the expense of federal taxpayers. Yesterday\u2019s sentence underscores the department\u2019s commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who steal from the public fisc.\u201d<\/p>\n

To execute the scheme, Hicks and others created fictitious employers and fabricated lists of purported employees using personally identifiable information (PII) from thousands of identity theft victims and filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims on the GaDOL website. The co-conspirators obtained PII for use in the scheme from a variety of sources, including by paying an employee of an Atlanta-area health care and hospital network to unlawfully obtain patients\u2019 PII from the hospital\u2019s databases, and by purchasing PII from other sources over the internet. Using victims\u2019 PII, Hicks and her co-conspirators caused the stolen UI funds to be disbursed via prepaid debit cards mailed to addresses of their choice, many of which were in and around Cordele and Vienna. Hicks additionally paid a local U.S. Postal Service (USPS) carrier to unlawfully divert mail containing debit cards loaded with over $512,000 in fraud proceeds to her and coached another co-conspirator on how to create her own fictitious employer account via Facebook Messenger.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In February, Hicks pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Seven of Hicks\u2019 co-conspirators have previously pleaded guilty or been sentenced in the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyshion Nautese Hicks and her co-conspirators used the stolen PII of unwitting victims to file numerous fraudulent claims for UI benefits with the Georgia Department of Labor,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Mathew Broadhurst of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG) Southeast Regional Office. \u201cWe will continue to work with our federal and state law enforcement partners to safeguard UI benefit programs for those who need them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sentence received by the defendant is the outcome of IRS Criminal Investigation\u2019s commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who attempt to defraud various agencies by filing fraudulent claims using another person\u2019s identifying information,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Demetrius Hardeman of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Atlanta Field Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cPostal Inspectors will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold individuals accountable for engaging in fraudulent schemes to manipulate the COVID-19 program for their own financial gain,\u201d said Inspector in Charge Tommy D. Coke of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Atlanta Division. \u201cThe sentencing should serve as a deterrence and shows that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s sentencing underlines our commitment to holding those who exploit federal relief programs for personal gain accountable,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Ulrich of the USPS Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG). \u201cAs proven in this case, our criminal investigators along with our law enforcement partners will work together and diligently pursue anyone who attempts to exploit programs created to help legitimate people and businesses affected by the global pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHicks chose to commit fraud, further depleting limited funds designated to help individuals struggling to survive during the pandemic,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Frederick D. Houston of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Atlanta Field Office. \u201cShe and her co-conspirators also stole the personally identifiable information, caring only about self-enrichment, not the lives adversely affected. This case signifies our commitment to protect citizens and businesses from fraud and identity theft.\u00a0We will continue to work with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to prosecute those who abuse these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHomeland Security Investigations will aggressively pursue those who exploit unemployment benefits meant for those in need, ensuring that justice is served, and resources are preserved for legitimate claimants,\u201d said Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven N. Schrank of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Atlanta Office.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday\u2019s sentencing sends a clear message that those committing fraud will be held accountable,\u201d said Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari of the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG). \u201cDHS-OIG and our law enforcement partners will continue to prioritize protecting our country from these kinds of schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOL-OIG, IRS-CI, USPS-OIG, USPIS, USSS, HSI, and DHS-OIG investigated the case.<\/p>\n

Trial Attorneys Lyndie Freeman, Siji Moore, Matthew Kahn, and Andrew Jaco of the Criminal Division\u2019s Fraud Section prosecuted the fraud case.<\/p>\n

On May 17, 2021, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Justice Department 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, 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\u2019s response to the pandemic, please visit\u00a0www.justice.gov\/coronavirus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Justice Department\u2019s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at\u00a0www.justice.gov\/disaster-fraud\/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Woman Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for $30M COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud Scheme and Firearms Charge 10\/25\/24 – A Georgia woman was sentenced yesterday for her role in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL) out of tens of millions of dollars in benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,72,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking","category-theftandfraud","category-postal-crime","last_archivepost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36641,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36640\/revisions\/36641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/postalemployeenetwork.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}