California prison inmates indicted in $2 million California bank fraud case washingtonexaminer.com

Thirteen members of a California prison-based bank fraud ring allegedly stole more than $2 million in unemployment benefits using the identities of inmates and visitors, according to a federal indictment unsealed Tuesday.

An employee of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was also implicated in the scheme by an informant who said the person provided names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers to the defendants, who then obtained debit cards with that information.

“The defendants and their co-conspirators assumed the victims’ identities and provided materially false information to [the state], including that the victims were unemployed as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” a Homeland Security agent wrote in an affidavit.

Most of the crimes occurred in 2020. The charges include 31 counts of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud and 150 other lesser fraud counts. Six defendants have not been located, and the remainder were arrested Wednesday or were already in custody.

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