For all intents and purposes, California did everything right to ensure that the unemployment benefits were getting to real people during the pandemic shut down. But there was no manual provided to the states when the U.S Congress approved the CARES Act with orders for each state to get the money to the U.S. citizens, as quickly as possible and without seeing anyone in person. Proving a person’s identity online was the only option. Even though applications for unemployment claims filed using a third-party security firm to confirm and approve all the identities, Kaymeisha Keyes was able to steal over $1 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits.
Keyes collected stolen personal information from people, including names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers, and used their identities to file fraudulent claims of lost employment during the pandemic. In executing this fraudulent scheme, Keyes submitted false information that did little more than confirm it was a document. This false information included images of fake driver’s licenses that contained photos of Keyes and the names of the purported claimants. Once these false identities were “verified,” Keyes filed the fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with EDD under the same identities. Maybe consider requiring a real time identity verification software, powered by physical and digital identity intelligence for the next pandemic.
The scheme sought more than $2 million in unemployment benefits; Keyes was able to obtain more than $1 million in EDD funds. But her restitution is going to be more. Along with nine years in prison, Keyes was ordered to pay $1,116,683 in restitution.
Shout out to the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force, one of five federal strike force teams targeting large-scale pandemic relief fraud.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Woman sentenced to 9 years in prison for $1M California unemployment insurance fraud during COVID pandemic” published by CBS News on September 18, 2024.
A judge sentenced a Northern California woman to nine years in prison on Tuesday for fraudulently obtaining more than $1 million in unemployment benefits during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Kaymeisha Keyes, 33, of San Joaquin County pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a scheme to defraud the state’s Employment Development Department. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said Keyes filed dozens of fraudulent claims with the department to obtain unemployment benefits under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act between April 2020 and August 2021.
