Philadelphia-U.S. lawyer Jacqueline C. Romero has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison and three years of supervision release by Brandon Segers, 34, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for fraudulent applications and emergencies. Announced that it was ordered to pay $ 142,069 as compensation for the event. COVID-19 Unemployment allowance associated with a pandemic. Specifically, Segers et al. Presented false allegations that prisoners lost their jobs as a result of a pandemic and false weekly findings that prisoners could work full-time despite being imprisoned.
On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Assistance Economic Security Act (CARES Act) was enacted. The CARES Act has created a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. This program provides unemployment benefits to those who are not covered by regular unemployment compensation or extended unemployment benefits, such as those affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic, families and businesses. The eligibility for PUA Weekly Benefits is based on the claimant’s unemployment due to a pandemic, and the claimant must be able to work daily and be able to accept any work provided. Once the applicant has been approved for the benefit, the applicant must submit a weekly certificate stating that: I was looking for a full time job. We are not rejecting jobs or recommendations. He reported that he had been employed during the week and received total wages or other payments.
In April 2022, the defendant was found guilty of wire fraud, wire fraud, a plot of US fraud, and a plot of stealing government money. As part of his plea, Segers admitted that a claim was filed on behalf of a prisoner who had never lost his job because of COVID. Co-defendant and prisoner Michael Matthews gave the prisoner information needed to file an AUP request to Segers, a former federal prisoner previously held in Matthews, by phone and email. Segers then submits fraudulent claims and weekly certificates on behalf of Matthews and other prisoners provided by Matthews. The Segers compensated Matthews by providing information to prisoners by depositing money in the federal prison director’s account. Matthews has previously been found guilty of related charges and will be sentenced to 22 July 2022. The proceedings of co-defendant Dionne Segers are ongoing.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Small Business Loan Fund aims to help American workers and small business owners continue to invoice and earn income in the event of a decline in income. “Thieves trying to use these funds take advantage of the misery of others to trick them and all taxpayers who fund the program. Segers and Matthews are businesses and individuals. Unauthorized acquisition of thousands of dollars of money that could help with the hardships of.
“Today, Brandon Segers was held liable for using fraud and fraud to line his pockets with PUA funds,” said Yuri Crouty, a special agent for criminal investigations at the IRS. “This is a warning to those who consider the PUA program to be a kickback fund. IRS CI is working with its partners to continue investigating those who are fraudulently targeting the PUA program.”
This issue was investigated by the US Department of Labor – Directorate General of Inspection and Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation. The proceedings have been indicted by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy Lani.
If you have information about fraud attempts related to COVID-19, please call the Department of Justice’s National Disaster Fraud Center hotline (866-720-5721) or NCDF’s online complaint form (https: //). You can report from www.justice). gov / Disaster-fraud / ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.