A Middle Georgia man was found guilty of helping to file thousands of fake COVID-19 unemployment claims, stealing millions from the Georgia Department of Labor, according to the United States Department of Justice.
Co-conspirators including Malcolm Jeffrey, a 34-year-old Cordele man, used “stolen identities” to submit around 7,000 unemployment insurance claims, according to Rodney M. Hopkins, inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Atlanta Division.
Jeffrey and co-conspirators received more than $16 million in fraudulent benefits from the state’s Department of Labor. The funds were mailed to him and others on prepaid debit cards to various locations near Cordele.
He was “responsible for the depletion of” a federal relief program meant to assist unemployed people during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hopkins said.
Jeffrey and others took personal information from hundreds of people to make fake “lists of purported employees” under a defunct company, Down N Dirty LLC, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
A federal jury in Albany found probable cause, based on evidence presented at trial, to convict Jeffrey on Friday of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
He could face 20 years in prison, according to the DOJ. A federal district court judge will determine his sentence.
Anyone with information related to attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can call the DOJ’s National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721, or via an online complaint form.
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