Three plead guilty to their role in $5 million COVID scheme run by SC inmates
Four people have pleaded guilty for their role in a COVID-19 fraud scheme run from inside a South Carolina prison that cost the federal government $5 million.
Dawn Aileen Hall, Albert J. Cave Jr., James Griffin and Jessica Ann Howell pleaded guilty in the scheme at the federal courthouse in Columbia, South Carolina.
The four defendants all pleaded guilty to a single charge of conspiracy. They face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, three years supervised release and $100 special assessment. So far, 14 of the 15 people indicted by federal agents last July have pleaded guilty. They have yet to be sentenced.
As part of their pleas, Hall and Howell both agreed to cooperate with investigators by providing information about the scheme.
In the indictment, prosecutors charged six inmates at the S.C. Department of Corrections along with nine other accomplices with using personal identifying information like Social Security numbers and birth dates they “harvested” from other inmates and victims of sextortion schemes to defraud the government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Using contraband cellphones, the inmates allegedly posed as underage males or females and lured individuals to send nude photos, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The inmates then contacted the victims while posing as law enforcement officers and pressured the victims to send photos of their Social Security cards and driver’s licenses.
The inmates then allegedly used this information to obtain COVID-19 unemployment benefits administered through the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce as well as through Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, Missouri, Arizona, and California.
Other defendants, who were not incarcerated, allegedly received the fraudulently obtained benefits in the form of government checks and prepaid Visa debit cards.
The scheme netted $4,996,673, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
There was a wrinkle in the proceedings when Griffin’s plea was initially delayed. That’s because Griffin, in response to a question from U.S. Judge Sherri Lydon about whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said he had smoked marijuana the previous night. Griffin is an inmate at the S.C. Department of Corrections.
“I don’t think I’ve ever quite gotten that response,” Lydon said after a pause.
“I’m just being transparent,” Griffin said.
“I appreciate your honesty,” Lydon replied.
Griffin’s attorney said that her client seemed “clear minded.”
Under oath, Griffin added that he had been a regular user of marijuana since the age of 10. “It don’t affect me much anymore.”
“Ok, well I won’t debate that with you,” Lydon replied.
Court records indicate the Griffin’s plea was accepted later on Thursday.
Cellphone scams by inmates
The fraud scheme, which allegedly ran from March 2020 to December 2020, is one of several widespread scams perpetrated by South Carolina inmates. While sextortion was only one component of the scheme, inmates have repeatedly been arrested for perpetrating similar crimes.
In 2018, 15 people, including five inmates, were charged in a sextortion scheme which saw $560,000 paid to the blackmailers. Roughly 440 members of the military fell victim to a sextortion scam in the mid-2010s in a scheme where inmates using contraband cellphones set up dating profiles before pretending to be minors and demanding payment.
In December, three inmates of the Lieber Correctional Institution were charged in a “sprawling” scheme that netted $146,000 from five victims in 2022.
At the center of these cases are cellphones. Since the 2018 case, the state Department of Corrections has waged a war on contraband devices.
In July 2023, the department began testing a long-anticipated program to disable targeted cellphones in state prisons. While federal prisons can “jam” cell signals, state entities are forbidden by federal law from using the same technology. But the new system allows officials to identify unauthorized cellphone signals inside of prison and then disable those specific devices with the assistance of telecom carriers.
Because the technology targets the device itself, inmates can’t get around the system by changing carriers.
This high-tech solution has also been pared with statewide contraband sweeps to prevent employees from bringing in phones and the installation of netting to prevent phones from being thrown over prison walls or even delivered by drone.
