California EDD Sent Millions in Unemployment Benefits to Inmates in Jails and Prisons
EDD Strike Team made recommendations to reform EDD processes, but nothing to prevent or detect fraud

By Katy Grimes, November 24, 2020 4:57 pm

Tuesday District Attorneys from across California joined together for a press briefing hosted by Sacramento County DA Anne Marie Schubert and El Dorado County DA Vern Pierson, to expose the massive unemployment benefits fraud in jails and prisons in California. “This is perhaps the biggest fraud on taxpayers in California history,” DA Schubert said.

Joining them was San Mateo District Attorney Stephen Wagstaff, Kern County DA Cynthia Zimmer, and U.S. Attorney McGregor “Greg” Scott. DA Vern Pierson is also the Board President of the California District Attorneys Association.

We’ve been hearing about fraudulent unemployment claims since the coronavirus pandemic lockdown was first ordered by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March. However, millions and quite possibly billions of dollars has been sent to inmates in California’s county jails, and state and federal prisons, while legitimate claimants are stiffed for months.

“District Attorneys, and Federal Prosecutors, along with local, state and federal law enforcement have discovered there is rampant and large scale pandemic unemployment assistance fraud occurring in our communities, in the jails, and in state and federal prisons,” the California District Attorney’s Statewide EDD Fraud Task Force said in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom Monday evening.

They sent the letter to the Governor asking him assistance to assist or facilitate stopping the flow of going to inmates because unbelievably, the EDD says it does not have a mechanism to do so.

“The volume of fraud as well as the types of inmates involved is staggering,” the DAs said. Death row inmates, life and life without possibility of parole inmates, rapists, molesters, human traffickers, and other violent criminals, are receiving unemployment benefits, and the DAs say many of the claim checks are also being sent out of state.

The DAs report California’s EDD agency does not cross reference payments with incarcerated inmates. But 35 other states not only cross-reference with inmate data, many states do it on a weekly basis. Twenty-eight states cross-match between claimants and county jail data. Six states cross match against federal prison data.

Red the rest of the story here: [californiaglobe.com]