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A woman who is serving a life sentence in prison for murder, made out with almost $2 million in California unemployment benefits by using stolen identities.
Federal authorities arrested five people who were linked to the fraud ring today, May 18. They used stolen identities to apply for pandemic-related relief in unemployment benefits and some of those identities were from prison inmates. Thirteen people have been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud in connection to the unemployment's benefits ring.
Once the people had obtained a person's information such as name, date of birth and Social Security numbers, they would apply online to seek benefits from the California Employment Development Department. Those involved would receive a debit card once the applications were approved and were able to withdraw money from ATMs in Southern California. The scammers ended up getting almost $2 million in unemployment aid.
For more information head to KTLA 5.