A Las Vegas man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for his role in stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from California’s unemployment insurance system during the pandemic. In a meticulously plotted course of action, starting in August of 2020 to September 18, 2020, Emelio Vladimir Rochester and his fellow fraudster buddy, Joseph Holmes, Jr., managed to file claims for 17 stolen identities unbeknownst to the victims…victims who actually did not qualify for benefits at all, a scheme that could have gone on indefinitely if it wasn’t for a routine traffic stop.
Using the stolen identities, Rochester and Holmes created accounts with California’s Employment Development Department and then filed fraudulent unemployment benefit claims using fraudulent employment documents. Rochester withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from ATMs across various Californian locales including Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, and Garden Grove. That’s a lot of driving.
Rochester’s wrongdoing came to a screeching stop. Literally. On Sept. 18, 2020, officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by Rochester with co-conspirator, Holmes, in the passenger seat. A search of the vehicle recovered the seventeen EDD debit cards in different names, along with $89,710 in cash, five cell phones, three laptop computers, and a tablet.
On March 28, 2025, Rochester was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $192,234 in restitution. His partner Holmes pleaded guilty to his participation and received a four and a half year sentence.
Shout out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and the U.S. Department of Labor in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Las Vegas man sentenced to prison for unemployment benefits fraud, identity theft” published by KLAS News on March 28, 2025.
A Las Vegas man was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on Thursday for defrauding more than $380,000 in unemployment benefits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.Emelio Vladimir Rochester, 28, and his co-defendant Joseph Holmes Jr. conspired to obtain and possess 17 Employment Development Department (EDD) debit cards issued in the names of the victims without authorization.
Between Aug. 15, 2020, and Sept. 18, 2020, Rochester and Holmes stole personal information from the victims and filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims. They then used the debit cards that were loaded with unemployment benefit funds to make ATM withdrawals in Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, and Garden Grove, California.
