Former official Andrea Gervais poses as a senator to collect unemployment benefits

• A former official identified as Andrea Gervais was charged with committing a scam against the unemployment benefits system.
• ATM cameras recorded when former official Andrea Gervais collected funds from the unemployment benefit.
• The fraud the one involving former official Andrea Gervais is related to nearly 100 fraudulent claims.

A former official would have posed as

a California senator in order to collect unemployment benefits due to the coronavirus crisis.

The Efe news agency reported that the Department of Justice reported on Thursday several accusations of suspects of defrauding the California unemployment benefits system for thousands of dollars, including a former employee of the Employment Development Department (EDD) who she allegedly posed as Federal Senator Dianne Feinstein to collect the funds.

Federal prosecutors indicted Andrea M. Gervais, 43, a former EDD employee in Sacramento on Thursday, who allegedly participated in a mail fraud scheme involving approximately 100 fraudulent Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims on behalf of several false identities.

The investigation began when investigators discovered a PUA claim using Senator Feinstein’s identity worth $ 21,000.

Authorities say that Andrea Gervais received a PUA debit card in the name of the Californian senator.

Andrea Gervais was caught on the cameras of Bank of America ATMs repeatedly withdrawing the funds allocated.

The defendant was recorded using at least seven PUA debit cards out of the 12 benefit claims awarded.

EDD paid more than $ 200,000 in unemployment benefits related to Andrea Gervais’ Roseville, California address.

The total value of all the fraudulent PUA applications for Andrea Gervais’ residence was at least $ 2 million.

Andrea Gervais worked for EDD from 2010 to 2018 as an office assistant under the name Andrea Dangerfield, reported the Los Angeles Times newspaper cited by Efe.

The defendant was fired by the agency in October 2018 after an internal investigation implicated her in the theft of a money order, the newspaper revealed.

In another case amid the millionaire fraud, the DOJ reported that a grand jury in Fresno indicted an inmate at the Central California Women’s Center (CCWF) in Chowchilla who allegedly participated in the robbery.

Sholanda Thomas, 36, and Christina Smith, 37, were charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated charges of identity theft for filing multiple fraudulent EDD unemployment insurance claims on behalf of Thomas and other inmates by CCWF.

Recorded calls and emails to the jail show that Thomas obtained the inmates’ names, dates of birth, and social security numbers and gave that information to Smith to file the fraudulent unemployment benefit claims.

The fraud claimed that the inmates had worked as hairdressers, barbers and other occupations, and were available for work, which was not true because they were incarcerated.

Investigators determined that Smith kept Thomas’ part, which he kept in a shoe box with the intention of waiting for the inmate to leave prison. With part of the funds, Smith underwent plastic surgery.

Earlier this month, Bank of America estimated the California EDD fraud could total $ 2 billion and said it has identified 640,000 accounts with suspicious activity that should be investigated.

Mundo Hispánico – December 18

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