A former employee of the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which administers the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) program, and her former boyfriend were sentenced today to federal prison terms for fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 pandemic-related jobless benefits.
Phyllis Hope Stitt, 61, of Carson, was sentenced to 20 months in federal prison by United States District Judge André Birotte Jr., who also ordered her to pay $768,958 in restitution.
Judge Birotte also sentenced Kenneth Earl Riley, 64, of South Los Angeles, to 20 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay $611,458 in restitution.
Stitt and Riley had been in a romantic relationship for more than 10 years at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic while Stitt was employed by the EDD as an employment program representative.
Her job duties included determining claimant eligibility for UI benefits and performing claim processing activities.
From March 2020 to September 2021, while using the access and information available to her in her position with EDD, Stitt acquired the names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and other personal identifying information of victims that were used to submit fraudulent claims.
Stitt then filed fraudulent applications for UI benefits without the victims’ knowledge or consent, and then increased the amount of UI benefits paid out by backdating the fraudulent requests to maximise the claims.
Stitt certified the fraudulent applications, alleging that the victims had submitted their employment history and driver’s license information, and she confirmed they were unemployed because of the pandemic and were actively searching for work.
Many of the victims were ineligible to receive these benefits because they were currently employed, not unemployed because of the pandemic, or were deceased at the time.
In filing the fraudulent applications, Stitt used mailing addresses to which Riley had access. Riley then used debit cards and accounts created because of these fraudulent applications.
Riley then made cash withdrawals at ATMs, bank transfers and retail purchases.
