During the COVID-19 pandemic, the sudden surge in unemployment insurance applications overwhelmed state employment departments. While states were focusing on processing applications and making payments quickly, many waved certification and work search requirements to do so – thus, providing fraudsters with more opportunities to sneak through the front door using stolen identities and other commonly used fraud schemes. Just like Terrance Calhoun, Jr., who on April 27, 2025, pleaded guilty to a multi-million dollar unemployment insurance scheme.
Using stolen personal identities, Calhoun Jr. filed hundreds of false unemployment claims with state unemployment insurance agencies in Michigan, Arizona, and Maryland, without their knowledge or consent. Calhoun fraudulently filed false claims that resulted in hundreds of debit cards loaded with over $4 million in unemployment insurance funds mailed to his and his co-conspirators’ addresses. While state investigators were able to electronically reclaim a portion of the funds before Calhoun unloaded the cards, he was still able to withdraw roughly $1.6 million dollars from automatic bank teller machines…which he used for his own personal gain.
In the raids conducted at the mailing addresses used by Calhoun, the federal agents seized debit cards in other people’s names, numerous documents containing the personal identification information of others, along with firearms. Agents also claimed distinctive clothing that Calhoun wore in the ATM surveillance videos that were used to identify him in the scheme.
The sentencing is set for August 27, 2025.
Shout out to the U.S. Department of Labor in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “ $4M in federal pandemic unemployment fraud, some in AZ, leads to conviction” published by the Arizona Republic on April 27, 2025.
A Michigan man has pleaded guilty in a federal case involving identity theft and the theft of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds from unemployment agencies, including in Arizona.
Terrance Calhoun Jr., 36, of Pontiac, admitted to charges of aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices, according to an April 23 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ described Calhoun’s crimes as a “large-scale, multi-state Unemployment Insurance benefit fraud scheme” where he and coconspirators fraudulently obtained more than $4 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance money on debit cards.
