Yonkers man sentenced to prison for unemployment insurance fraud
A Yonkers man was sentenced to a year in prison Wednesday for engaging in an unemployment insurance benefits scheme that generated nearly $70,000, including benefits funded by the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York Carla Freedman said Errol Murray, 22, of Yonkers, admitted in May that he provided Jamie Johnson, 36, of Albany, his and one other person's personal identifying information. Johnson used this information to file false claims with the New York State Department of Labor.
Freedman said Murray pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $701,411 in unemployment benefits on May 17. His co-defendants, Taliek Lanier, 23, of Albany and Thomas Brace, 62, of Altoona, Penn., also previously pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme with Johnson and were both separately sentenced to time in prison and supervised release.
Murray further admitted Wednesday that the two false claims filed by Johnson resulted in Murray receiving a payout of $69,954 in unemployment insurance benefits from the Department of Labor.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence E. Kahn ordered Murray to pay the state approximately $69,954 in restitution and sentenced Murray to 12 months in prison with three years of post-release supervision.
Attorney General Merrick Garland established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in May 2021 to combine the efforts of the Department of Justice and other government agencies in combating and preventing pandemic-related fraud.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Yonkers NY man sentenced to prison for unemployment fraud
