California sent unemployment benefits to death row inmates

San Quentin inmate Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his wife and unborn son, has been receiving unemployment benefits in California in recent months, according to a group of state and federal prosecutors who have investigated the fraud in the pandemic relief system administered by the state employment development department. .

Thus was sentenced serial killer Cary Stayner, who in 1999 murdered two women and two girls near Yosemite and is now imprisoned near Peterson in the death row.

Also allegedly approved for an unemployment debit card: Isauro Aguirre, sentenced to death in 2018 for torture and the death of Gabriel Fernandez, 8.

Nine district attorneys across California and a federal prosecutor made the allegations on Tuesday and called on Governor Gavin Newsom to step in to end this unemployment scam in California jails and prisons – which may involve dozens of people. Thousands of questionable claims totaling hundreds of millions of dollars – although they said they were unsure whether high profile claimants were scammed or participants.

Pat Harris, Peterson’s attorney, said he was “absolutely certain Scott was not involved and any investigation would clear this up.”

District attorneys called the situation “the largest taxpayer fund fraud in California history,” according to a letter obtained by The Times, describing crimes involving the identity theft of prisoners as well as alleged plots by individual inmates and organized gangs to gamble the state system.

“This is a glaring problem that cannot be ignored, and the governor must take action to address it,” said McGregor Scott, US attorney for the Eastern District of California.

Prosecutors argue that fraud can be prevented through systems such as those used by other states that verify inmate data against unemployment claims. They called on Newsom to step in to “turn off the tap” on payments to incarcerated people, saying EDD’s response to their inquiries has been “slow to non-existent,” according to the Sacramento district. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, who helped form and lead a working group on the issue.

“EDD is just a dysfunctional mess,” El Dorado County Dist said. Atty. Vern Pierson, task force member and chair of the California District Attorneys Assn.

Newsom said Tuesday the fraud was “absolutely unacceptable” and announced its own task force to assist district attorneys and coordinate California’s anti-fraud efforts, adding that the state had already started comparing lists of detainees to claims for pandemic benefits.

“Earlier this year, I launched a strike team to speed up unemployment payments and minimize abuse of the system,” Newsom said in a statement. “Although we have made improvements, we need to do more.”

EDD is trying to eliminate complaints from incarcerated people who are not eligible and “seeks to incorporate such cross-matches in the future,” said Loree Levy, spokesperson for the agency.

While few dispute the need for unemployment aid during an unprecedented economic recession – and the potential need for additional stimulus funds – the latest allegations highlight lingering issues with ESD that have left many people behind. questioning the agency’s ability to handle the massive number of new requests.

So far, investigations have revealed more than $ 400,000 in state allowances paid to death row inmates and more than $ 140 million to others incarcerated in 35 California prisons, according to Schubert.

“Murderers, rapists and human traffickers should not be getting this money,” Schubert said. “It has to stop.”

Dist. Atty. Cynthia Zimmer of Kern County – which has five prisons, most of all counties in California – called the scope of the scams shocking. Zimmer said his office found around $ 16 million in allegedly fraudulent claims in his county alone.

“I have been a prosecutor for 36 years,” she said. “I have never seen fraud of this magnitude.”

To qualify for unemployment benefits, claimants must actively seek work and be available to accept work, a standard that inmates are generally unable to meet.

Schubert and Zimmer said the alleged fraud took many forms; some complaints may have been submitted by inmates directly or by family and friends to whom they have given their personal information. Other prisoners may be unwitting victims.

Examples of large-scale organized projects have also been uncovered, prosecutors said, including the possible involvement of prison gangs. Charges have been filed in a few cases, but prosecutors say hundreds of investigations are ongoing.

Because cases are complex and can involve thousands of individuals incarcerated in multiple jurisdictions – with some reporting being jailed in counties different from where their payments are sent – prosecutors said individual counties, particularly small and rural where some prisons are located, could not handle the burden of investigations.

Federal prosecutors have helped piece together the scale of the problem, and district attorneys are now asking for more help from the state to manage the caseload. But Pierson, the El Dorado district attorney, said he and others were told that EDD only has 17 statewide fraud investigators.

“At the hierarchical level,” he said, “they try to do their best, but they don’t have the right resources or support.”

The potential fraud came to light after district attorneys in Los Angeles, Lassen County and San Mateo County uncovered questionable allegations from local jails and jails, in part through monitoring of recorded telephone conversations of detained while investigating unrelated crimes, several sources familiar with the investigations said. Investigators also noticed that large warrants were being sent to detainees.

Riverside Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin said the system is usually run by someone outside who takes care of the paperwork. Payments usually go to an address outside of the prison. Once the payment card is obtained, the person on the outside puts part of the funds into the inmate’s prison account, where it can be used to purchase services and goods such as food and vouchers.

“One guy on a phone call bragged about buying a $ 400 watch for his mom thanks to the state,” Hestrin said.

San Mateo Atty County District. Stephen Wagstaffe, who is not a member of the task force but whose investigators uncovered such a fraud months ago, said he believed the problem was “dramatically large.” Wagstaffe said charges have been filed against 22 people in its jurisdiction for seeking benefits while incarcerated or for helping an inmate do so – crimes that can lead to three years in prison. He said four of those defendants have so far pleaded guilty. In one case, the alleged fraudster was a convicted murderer awaiting transfer to state prison and, once transferred, continued the scam, Wagstaffe said.

In another case, a suspect went missing after posting bail on a million-dollar bail order, some of which Wagstaffe suspects were paid with EDD funds, he said.

“It’s such an easy scam to do,” Wagstaffe said. “It’s spreading like wildfire among the inmates.”

Scott, the federal prosecutor, said prison unemployment fraud is a national problem and 10 U.S. deputy lawyers have been hired in recent months specifically to investigate the matter, including one in California.

In August, Pennsylvania US Atty. Scott W. Brady and Pennsylvania Atty. Gen. Josh Shapiro has charged 33 people, including inmates of eight western Pennsylvania state and county jails and prisons and their accomplices, with illegally obtaining unemployment benefits under the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security).

In California, Scott worked with district attorneys to file a subpoena on behalf of the US Department of Labor to compel the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to give them a list of all those in prison. The Labor Department compared that list with UI data from March through August, according to the letter, and found that more than 35,000 inmates had filed claims and more than 20,000 had been paid. An unidentified inmate received over $ 48,000.

Data showed that 133 California death row inmates had 158 claims on their behalf, one having received more than $ 19,000 to date, according to the letter to the governor.

Schubert said prosecutors are asking state authorities to ensure that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which assisted with the investigations, regularly shares identifying data such as Social Security numbers with EDD to help weed out fraudulent claims – a system used by 35 other states, she says. Twenty-eight states are also sharing this data at the county jail level, according to the letter.

CDCR spokesperson Dana Simas said the agency “has worked with the Department of Employment Development, the United States Department of Labor and local prosecutors to put an end to these illegal activities in the prisons of State. We will continue to partner with local district attorneys to provide all the resources and information necessary to investigate and pursue this latest development. “

State lawmakers have been sounding the alarm bells for months about alleged fraud in the growing unemployment benefit program, which has paid an unprecedented $ 110 billion on 9 million claims since the start of the COVID pandemic -19 in March. Last month, the EDD said 350,000 of the debit cards it issued containing benefits were frozen due to suspicious activity, including cases where dozens of claims were filed using a single address.

The agency has a backlog of about 580,000 applications that it has not paid because they are stuck in processing.

“The ineptitude of EDD knows no bounds,” said MP Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach), chair of the Assembly’s Accountability and Administrative Review Committee. “This latest report of widespread EDD fraud by inmates is particularly scandalous because it is such a simple problem to solve.”

But as claims languish and the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy, prosecutors are frustrated that little has changed.

“Really, at this point, stopping the bleeding is the most important thing, because the fraud continues,” the Fresno District said. Atty. Lisa Smittcamp, who found approximately 860 questionable claims from inmates at Pleasant Valley State Prison, amounting to approximately $ 3.6 million. “It’s just random payment cards that they send out, and they’re completely irresponsible with taxpayer dollars.”