Woman sentenced to 9 years in prison for $1M California unemployment insurance fraud during COVID pandemic

By Carlos Castañeda

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    SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY, California (KPIX) — A judge sentenced a Northern California woman to nine years in prison on Tuesday for fraudulently obtaining more than $1 million in unemployment benefits during the height of the COVID pandemic.

Kaymeisha Keyes, 33, of San Joaquin County pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft as part of a scheme to defraud the state’s Employment Development Department. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said Keyes filed dozens of fraudulent claims with the department to obtain unemployment benefits under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act between April 2020 and August 2021.

According to prosecutors, Keyes collected stolen personal information from people, including names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers, and used their identities to file fraudulent claims of lost employment during the pandemic. Keyes used the third-party security firm ID.me to submit fake driver’s licenses with photos of Keyes and her associates and requested the unemployment funds to be sent to addresses she controlled, including her home in Tracy.

Once the unemployment funds, loaded on EDD debit cards, were in her possession, prosecutors said she activated the cards and spent the money on herself. The scheme sought more than $2 million in unemployment benefits; Keyes was able to obtain more than $1 million in EDD funds.

Aside from the prison sentence, Keyes was ordered to pay $1,116,683 in restitution.

This case was prosecuted as part of the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force, one of five federal strike force teams targeting large-scale pandemic relief fraud.

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