Michigan Suspects Arrested After Stealing $4 Million in Unemployment Benefits in 5 States

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Two Michigan residents have been accused with stealing millions of dollars by filing hundreds of fake unemployment claims.

According to the Department of Justice, Tauheed Wilder, 39, of Detroit, and Shuqueni Franklin, 30, of Shelby Township, committed wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. Both were apprehended on December 7.

Men steals $4 million in unemployment claims

Wilder and Franklin are accused of filing 470 unemployment benefits claims in Michigan and four other states. The thefts resulted in attempted losses of $13 million and real losses of $4 million, Fox2 Detroit reported.

The suspects submitted "numerous false claims" with fake social security numbers using both their own names and the stolen identities. Surveillance cameras caught them using ATM cards bearing the names of people whose identities had been stolen.

The allegations follow a well-known pattern of fraud that has increased during the pandemic. Following the confirmation of COVID-19 in the United States, law enforcement has witnessed an increase in fraudulent cases as billions in insurance benefits became available.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the United States suffered record numbers of jobless, unemployment fraud has skyrocketed. Government loans tied to the pandemic, as well as employers and insurance companies, were a constant target for financial fraud.

Since the pandemic began, unemployment has dropped massively, with the most recent jobs report revealing that just 210,000 new jobs were generated in November, defying expectations of 550,000. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, responded to last week's poor jobs report by arguing that the figures do not reflect general labor market trends, Fow News reported.

Auditor decries unemployment fraud case

Meanwhile, the Washington State Auditor's Office (SAO) released a fresh report on Monday accusing the Employment Security Department (ESD) of "gaps in accountability" that allowed one former employee to misappropriate $315,282 and authorize another $121,503 in questionable unemployment benefit payments.

That comes out to $436,785 in funds that SAO contends was improperly squandered by an ESD employee, as per Washington Examiner. The former ESD employee in issue has been named as Reyes De La Cruz, III, by the US Department of Justice, which charged him with 20 counts of filing fraudulent unemployment claims and demanding kickbacks on September 24.

According to a press statement from the SAO, "No one at ESD examined various problematic decisions made by the employee." De La Cruz is accused of using the same address for several persons allegedly filing unemployment insurance benefit claims, as well as utilizing internet banking and debit cards to commit fraud, processing claims for people who were in jail, and using a false Social Security card for verification.

In response to a request for comment, ESD spokesman Nick Demerice pointed to a statement made by the department at the time of De La Cruz's indictment, as well as the formal response contained in the auditor's report.

The ESD vowed to add different control actions that can detect and avoid future employee fraud, organize more training sessions, and engage with the prosecution to recover cash if De La Cruz is found guilty, according to the auditor's report. ESD also stressed that three of De La Cruz's disputed unemployment claims, totaling $37,862, were legal and should not be labeled as questionable.