By Adam Beam •
Updated on December 18, 2020 at 1:05 pm
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Among the more than $110 billion in unemployment benefits California has paid this year to people who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus, $21,000 went to an address in Roseville under the name and Social Security number of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
The Bank of America, which contracts with the state to provide benefits to people on debit cards, flagged the claim for possible fraud. Federal investigators later found at least $2 million worth of fraudulent unemployment claims had been filed from that same address, which they said were all linked to a woman who once worked for the state unemployment agency until she was fired in 2018.
Three charged in unemployment benefits fraud scheme
and last updated 2020-12-17 19:18:59-05
SACRAMENTO, Calif. â Three people were charged in connection to unemployment fraud schemes.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been fraudulently taken in two separate schemes that targeted California Employment Development Department unemployment insurance benefits that were intended for Californians hit hardest by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.
The benefits involved billions of dollars in federal subsidies that have been significantly increased through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
On Thursday, the federal grand jury in Fresno returned an indictment involving a prison-based scheme out of the Central California Womenâs Facility in Chowchilla. Inmate Sholanda Thomas, 36, and parolee Christina Smith, 37, were indicted for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft charges for