Two Georgia men were sentenced for a $17 million unemployment fraud scheme that prosecutors said relied on stolen identities, fictitious employers and thousands of fabricated jobless claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal prosecutors said Malcolm Jeffrey, 34, received a 10-year prison term and was ordered to pay nearly $17 million in restitution. Gerard Towns, 34, was sentenced to six years and must repay about $365,000.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew R. Galeotti said the pair “orchestrated an egregious scheme to steal $17 million of unemployment insurance payouts using stolen identities,” adding they “exploited a government program designed to alleviate economic hardship to line their own pockets.”
Investigators said the group filed more than 2,500 fraudulent claims with the Georgia Department of Labor from March 2020 to November 2022.
According to court filings, the operation depended on creating fake companies, generating bogus employee lists, and using personal information from thousands of identity-theft victims.
Special Agent in Charge Mathew Broadhurst said the conspirators “submitted fraudulent UI claims using the stolen identities of identity theft victims to obtain debit cards loaded with UI benefits.”
