Personal development coaches help individuals align their actions with their values and aspirations. It is not just about improving what you do. It is about who you are and how you live. So imagine the confusion for the students in Reginal Foster’s class! Foster funded a non-profit, Champs Up!, to provide lifestyle and personal development coaching to students in public schools. Yet, on November 25, 2024, Foster pleaded guilty today to fraudulently applying for millions of dollars in COVID-19 jobless benefits, including by using stolen identities. Hopefully, he coached the students to be more than the fraudster he was.
From June 2020 to October 2020, Foster filed fraudulent applications for benefits in the names of people who had not authorized him to do so. Foster included false information on the applications to ensure that the California Employment Development Department would approve the applications. In total, Foster submitted 118 fraudulent applications as part of the scheme, resulting in millions of dollars approved for unemployment benefits.
Foster did use the EDD benefit cards to make transfers to his life coach non-profit business. However, Foster also used the cards to make multiple $1,000 withdrawals at ATMs, which he then transferred to co-conspirators, who used them to make further ATM withdrawals. Foster and his co-conspirators were able to withdraw almost $1.5 million of the benefits before their scheme was discovered. Luckily, Bank of America froze the remaining benefits as soon as the scheme was uncovered, preventing further losses of more than $4 million.
Foster now faces up to 30 years in federal prison for the conspiracy charge and up to 10 years for the unauthorized use of access devices when he is sentenced on March 24, 2025.
Shout out to the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day “CEO of Southern California nonprofit admits stealing $1.5M in COVID-19 benefits” published by KTLA News on November 25, 2024.
A Southern California-based nonprofit CEO pleaded guilty Monday to fraudulently applying for millions of dollars in COVID-19 jobless benefits, using stolen identities to steal nearly $1.5 million, officials say.
According to the Department of Justice, Reginald Foster Jr., 38, of Westchester, Los Angeles, admitted to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and bank fraud and one count of unauthorized use of access devices. The indictment alleges Foster took advantage of the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, part of the CARES Act passed in 2020 to help people impacted by the COID-19 pandemic.
