ALBANY, New York, November 5 — The WE Prosecutor of the North district of New York, Carla B. Freedmanissued the following press release on November 3, 2022:
Rhasha Wright, 30, of Roosevelt, New Yorkwas today sentenced to 24 months and one day in prison for conspiring with New York State prisoners to defraud pandemic-related unemployment insurance programs.
The announcement was made by United States Lawyer Carla B. Freedman; Jonathan Mellonspecial agent in charge, New York area, US Department of Labor, Inspector General’s Office (USDOL-OIG); Matthew ScarpinoActing Special Agent for Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Kitty Larco WardInspector in charge of the Boston Division of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS); Anthony J. Annucciacting commissioner of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYSDOCCS); and Roberta Redoncommissioner of the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL).
Wright previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. She admitted to conspiring with the co-defendants Reginald Thornton and Lord Paulintwo detainees Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, New York, to defraud NYSDOL by submitting false unemployment insurance claims to NYSDOL on behalf of Paulin and on behalf of another Bare Hill prisoner. Inmates were not eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
United States District Judge Glenn T. Suddaby also sentenced Wright to serve 1 year of post-release supervision and ordered him to pay $11,696 in return to New York State..
Thornton previously pleaded guilty to participating in two unemployment insurance fraud conspiracies while in prison and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, to be served after his state prison term ended. Paulin was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison, to be served after his state sentence ended. A fourth defendant, Briana Garlandpreviously pleaded guilty to conspiring with Thornton to submit a fraudulent claim on Thornton’s behalf and is awaiting sentencing.
The cases were investigated by USDOL-OIG, HSI, USPIS, and the NYSDOCCS and NYSDOL Offices of Special Investigations. Business was continued by assistant WE Lawyer Joshua R. Rosenthal.
On May 17, 2021the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force mobilize the resources of the justice department partnering with agencies across government to strengthen efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force strengthens efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies administering relief programs to prevent fraud, among other methods, by increasing and integrating coordination mechanisms existing ones, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their agendas, and sharing and leveraging information and knowledge gained from previous enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about alleged attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling of the Ministry of Justice National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
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Original text here: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/long-island-woman-sentenced-prison-unemployment-insurance-fraud
