Former EDD worker pleads guilty in unemployment fraud case that used Dianne Feinstein’s name

A former California Employment Development Department worker who allegedly filed 100 phony unemployment claims - one of them in the name of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. - pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Sacramento.

Andrea Marie Gervais, 44, of Roseville, was charged with theft of government property in connection with the scheme, part of an estimated $11 billion fraud racket involving scammers and prison inmates worldwide.

The charge could net Gervais up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and she also could be ordered to pay restitution.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller set Aug. 9 for sentencing.

Gervais first came to investigators’ attention Dec. 1, when Bank of America officials alerted authorities “that they discovered that a California unemployment profile was opened in the name of a United States Senator,” court records say.

Court filings did not identify the senator, but sources have told The Bee it was Feinstein and court records say a debit card in her name was issued with $21,000 on it.

Gervais subsequently was recorded on BofA ATM cameras withdrawing money using that card and others, court records say.

“EDD has paid out at least twelve of those claims in the amount of approximately $216,876 — including the claim that was filed under the name and SSN of a sitting U.S. Senator — with an attempted dollar loss of approximately $2.1 million,” the criminal complaint filed against Gervais says. “Of the 100 claims that were not paid by the EDD, the claimant either did not respond to an ID Alert, or the identity documents provided were not sufficient to proceed with adjudicating the UI claim.”

Gervais worked in EDD’s tax branch in 2018 until she came under investigation in the theft of a money order from an EDD mailroom, court records say. She was terminated Oct. 12, 2018, court records say.

Gervais, who has been out of custody since her arrest, is part of what authorities say is a massive fraud that began during the COVID-19 pandemic as inmates and other fraudsters discovered they could file phony unemployment claims as EDD officials struggled to keep up with demand from suddenly out-of-work Californians.

The same day that Gervais was charged officials announced charges against a parolee and an inmate at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla on charges they conspired to bundle up the names and Social Security numbers of inmates and file claims for them by lying that they were hairdressers who had been forced out of work by the pandemic, court records say.