A Riverside County woman was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for scamming more than $2.8 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits.
Sasha Lizette Jimenez, 26, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and will have to pay $2.3 million in restitution, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a press release.
She pleaded guilty in May to a count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud after she “admitted that she fraudulently obtained UI benefits from the EDD, including Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits intended for individuals who were unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the release said.
Jimenez and her confederates stole identities from people who were dead, lived outside California or were otherwise ineligible for those benefits.
While $2.8 million was issued to these fake beneficiaries, Jimenez withdrew about $2.3 million, resulting in the restitution amount she must repay, prosecutors said.
Jimenez also participated in a separate check fraud scam with her boyfriend, 26-year-old Meshach Samuels, though he also joined her in the unemployment fraud. He was sentenced in October to 90 months in federal prison.
Anyone with information about allegations of 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 at justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.