Identity Thief Claimed to Be Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Here's What Took Place.

Townhall ^ | 12/24/2020 | Beth Baumann

[SeekAndFind]

According to a newly-unsealed federal criminal complaint, a former employee for California's Employment Development Department (EDD), the state's unemployment agency, allegedly engaged in fraud.

Andrea Gervais, the former employee, allegedly used Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) name to apply for unemployment benefits through the EDD, POLITICO reported.

The information came to light after a bank employee noticed a deposit for $21,000 in the senator's name. The investigation revealed Gervasis allegedly filed $2.1 million in claims. Of those claims, she allegedly received $216,000 from roughly a dozen claims.

This is not the first time the Employment Development Department agency has struggled with fraud. In fact, inmates in the Golden State were part of a $1 billion scheme to claim unemployment because of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic.

"A multi-agency investigation found that 35,000 unemployment claims were filed in the name of California state prison inmates between March and August, including that of convicted murderer Scott Peterson, and that at least 20,000 had been paid out, said Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert," POLITICO reported in late November.

The inmate's scheme is likely to be the state's largest fraud case, at least as it relates to government agencies. But it is not the first time – and it probably will not be the last time – the agency has fallen victim to fraud.

In fact, Rapper Fontrell Antonio Baines, who goes by the stage name Nuke Bizzle, in a music video bragged about allegedly obtaining roughly $1.2 million in unemployment funds.

According to the New York Times, Baines bragged about his "swagger for the EDD," at which point he held up multiple envelopes from the unemployment agency. He also referenced his ability to get rich by going “to the bank with a stack of these.”

He was able to obtain the funds because of the additional unemployment funding Congress agreed to earlier in March during the CARES Act,

Baines reportedly used stolen identities to obtain the cash, which was found distributed between 92 debit cards that were mailed to various addresses in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles' Koreatown.

In another instance, a San Diego woman was caught conspiring to engage in unemployment fraud to help her boyfriend who is serving a 94-year sentence for murder.

The worst part of these cases: so many Californians have struggled to obtain unemployment benefits yet inmates can con the system into sending them hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of dollars.

[eyeamok]

An Information Coverup’: New Study Says California’s EDD Fraud Could Top $8B

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/12/15/goldstein-investigates-edd-fraud-over-8-billion/

There was another article the other day saying it is approaching $10 BILLION Dollars in Fraud

[DrHFrog]

All of this begs the question -—Why would the democrats complain of fraud?

[scrabblehack]

Doesn’t the former employer have to verify the former employment?

[Trump.Deplorable]

I was stuck behind a lady at the drive up ATM in Lakewood NJ that must have had a 100 debit cards, I waited for 20 minutes and gave up and left.

[Trump.Deplorable]

not with the PUA, you don’t even have to have a job and still get money

You could be “self employed” and get money

those two instances there is no employer, just your word

So the scammers just steal a bunch of SSN numbers and put them through as unemployed or self employed and walla pile of cash comes through. Remember the $600? That is why they did this.

Democrats did this to fund Antifa and black lives matter and other groups to defraud us of a fair election.

[Bigg Red]

Disgusting.

[Old Student]

Stealing from the stealers, and blaming it on another stealer, eh?

[Svartalfiar]

Doesn’t the former employer have to verify the former employment?

not with the PUA, you don’t even have to have a job and still get money

You could be “self employed” and get money

those two instances there is no employer, just your word

Normally, yes, UI is only available to those who worked a certain amount in the past year, and received a W2.

But as T.D said, the CARES Act opened UI up to everyone and their mother, who could then claim they were freelancers affected by the ChinaVirus, and get UI. I don't know how much documentation was required for such claims, but even tax forms are EASY to fake since they almost certainly didn't verify those with the IRS. The lack of oversight at many of these places means there was likely no followup or investigation into each SSN claimed, so little to none of the fraud was caught on application, when it should have been.

[Trump.Deplorable]

Anyone with a SSN qualified in all states

Not only did you get state unemployment you got an extra $600 a week as well.

This funded Antifa BLM and Leftist groups

Fraudsters have 100’s of bank debit cards and would empty ATM machines daily collecting $1000 a week per card

This thing was a giant fraud on hard working Americans

Why do you think sales of performance cars went up after this garbage was passed?

[scrabblehack]

Not in Florida - or if it was, my BIL (self-employed) was declined anyway.

[Senormechanico]

You should have taken a video with your camera, including her face and the car’s license plate. Then call the cops, IRS etc !!!

[HotHunt]

".... This is not the first time the Employment Development Department agency has struggled with fraud...."

And it won't be the last time. The government seems so surprised that people defraud the taxpayers. When you're giving away other peoples' monies by the millions, it only seems human nature to me that you will attract crooks who will try and get some of it.

This is only Kalifornia. Multiply the problem in this department by many other departments that give money away, then multiply it by 49 other states and the federal government itself, these war of poverty programs lose the taxpayers billions, if not trillions, every year.

Paid for courtesy of the hard working people who can't take advantage of these giveaways.

[ridesthemiles]

When I was an active bookkeeper in Calif, I filled out more than one inquiry bout unemployment.

I also thought it was mandatory to have that info before paying claims.

Perhaps it is easier today with so much being done on a computer??? Have the form sent to an address the controls & they answer the inquiry. THERE is NO real employer.

Who did 35,000 Calif Prison inmates show as THEIR employer???

[nascarnation]

Who did 35,000 Calif Prison inmates show as THEIR employer???

Ranked by frequency of appearance:

State of California

Burisma

California Democratic Party

Biden PAC dot com

Kamala Harris Landscaping

[Trump.Deplorable]

Nope, orthodox jew, nobody would do anything anyways.

And I would be called anti Semitic in return, why bother

[Svartalfiar]

Anyone with a SSN qualified in all states

Not only did you get state unemployment you got an extra $600 a week as well.

This funded Antifa BLM and Leftist groups

Fraudsters have 100’s of bank debit cards and would empty ATM machines daily collecting $1000 a week per card

Oh yea for sure. UI should not have been expanded that much. MAYBE to freelancers, with full documentation of 2-3 years' worth of Schedule Cs / old previous employment. But not to anyone with no discernible income within the base year period thing. And, the $600 should have been scaled based on your State unemployment: min UI benefit = $50 bonus, scaled linearly up to max UI benefit = full $600.

As for the fraud, based on SSN should have been easier to catch. Anyone still working would have had their UI office contact their job about why they need UI. Any senior citizen should have had SS contacted about it. Kids should have returned as too young to work. Dead should be known as dead. That would leave very few SSNs available for fraud, if only the State had bothered checking. Verify addresses (no PO Boxen!), and number of UI requests at each one. More than 3-4 probably means fraud. Really, anything more than two should have been an auto-flag. But the States didn't care...

[Svartalfiar]

Not in Florida - or if it was, my BIL (self-employed) was declined anyway.

Oh yea, quick look at Fl, they're max of 12 weeks, at $275/week. Ouch. And they didn't extend full UI to 1099/others, only for the duration of the bonus $600 payments. And those ended in July or August I believe.

[scrabblehack]

So he should have been approved?

I looked at the online application and yes it did exclude corporation officers.

[Svartalfiar]

So he should have been approved?

I looked at the online application and yes it did exclude corporation officers.

I can't say, I'm more familiar with TX than FL. But, if it does exclude corporation officers, usually that's only for corporations of a certain size. And unless he's running a pretty big company, he would likely be set up as a sole proprietorship, LLC (limited liability). IF he's even incorporated. When I was running freelance, I didn't set up an actual company, I just ran as myself, billed in my name, and all the 1099 income simply went into a Schedule C when I filed taxes. Many people that are self-employed/freelance do that, unless you have a bunch of employees/subcontractors that you're paying out to, in which case actually incorporating makes the tax things easier.