Convicted sex offender, accomplice charged in Yolo County EDD fraud case
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Updated: 12:36 PM PST Dec 22, 2020
Hope Miller
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Updated: 12:36 PM PST Dec 22, 2020
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THE VIGIL HAS BEEN HELD. DEIRDR A CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER IS FACING NEW CHARGES OF TRYING TO DEFRAUD. HE WAS ARRESTED LAST YEAR. INVESTIGATORS FOUND OUT HE HAD RECEIVED OVER $11,000 IN UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PAYMENT
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Updated: 12:36 PM PST Dec 22, 2020
Hope Miller
A man jailed for luring a child for sex and an outside accomplice have been charged in a California Employment Development Department fraud case out of Yolo County in which the pair is accused of swindling more than $11,000, officials announced this week. The events unfolded earlier this month when Taylor Lewis Gholar, 29, of West Sacramento, was sentenced to three years in state prison after being convicted of luring a 12-year-old child for sex, according to the Yolo County District Attorney's Office. He is serving his sentence at the Yolo County Jail. After Gholar was convicted, investigators learned Gholar was fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits while in custody in the Yolo County Jail. Investigators then intercepted phone calls from jail between Gholar and his girlfriend, Sonia Chan, in which the couple discussed filing fraudulent claims. Because Gholar was in jail, he was not eligible for unemployment benefits. A criminal complaint filed Monday in Yolo Superior Court alleges that Chan submitted an application for Gholar and received debit cards on Gholar's behalf. In all, they received $11,688 in fraudulent funds. They are both facing felony grand theft charges. The charges come as California is grappling with a massive fraud scheme involving EDD. Thousands of California jail and prison inmates, including serial killers, rapists, child molesters and murderers on death row, are accused of scamming the EDD out of COVID-19-related unemployment assistance. Estimates of the fraud likely top $2 billion, according to Bank of America.