Milwaukee woman gets prison sentence for stealing nearly $500,000 in unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic

United States District Court Judge Brett Ludwig sentenced a Milwaukee woman to 2¾ years in federal prison Thursday for stealing nearly $500,000 in unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nikki Brown, 43, pled guilty in April to one count of wire fraud for executing a scheme to defraud various state unemployment benefits programs.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the funding for the benefits was made available under the CARES Act, which was signed into law in 2020 in response to the pandemic, and included economic assistance for Americans, including stimulus checks.

According to court documents, Brown recruited people to help file fraudulent federal unemployment claims in six different states. Brown would obtain people's personal information by promising to give them a cut of the benefits, which grew to more than $494,000 in fraud proceeds, the DOJ said.

In May 2021, the Attorney General established a task force specifically tasked with combatting pandemic-related fraud. The DOJ said over the past few years 1,500 people have been accused of COVID-19 related fraud, with losses exceeding $1.1 billion.

An email to Brown's listed attorney was not immediately returned.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee woman sentenced for stealing unemployment funds