LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Los Angeles woman was sentenced Monday to four months in home detention for her role in a fraud ring -- led by a woman serving a life sentence for murder -- that used the stolen identities of California prison inmates and others to fraudulently obtain nearly $1 million in state unemployment insurance benefits.
Mykara Destiny Robinson, 25, pleaded guilty in April to one federal count of bank fraud. She is the 13th and final defendant to plead guilty in the case.
Federal prosecutors say that from August 2020 to October 2020, Robinson used debit cards to withdraw $68,742 in fraudulently obtained state- issued funds.
The lead defendants in the case are Natalie Le Demola, 38, originally of Corona, who is serving a life prison sentence after she was convicted in 2005 of first-degree murder, and Carleisha Neosha Plummer, 33, of Los Angeles, a close prison associate of Demola's until her parole in July 2020, court papers show.
Demola, Plummer and other co-conspirators "would acquire the personal identifying information, such as the names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers, of individuals, including identity theft victims, who were not eligible for UI (unemployment insurance) benefits, including pandemic benefits, because they were employed, retired, or incarcerated," according to a 39-count indictment returned in May 2022.
Members of the conspiracy then used the information to make fraudulent online applications for benefits. Once the applications were approved, members of the conspiracy received state-funded debit cards that allowed them to withdraw money from ATMs across Southern California.
According to Robinson's plea agreement, the conspiracy began in June 2020 and Robinson joined two months later. She and other members of the conspiracy assumed the identities of California prison inmates and used debit cards issued in their names to make fraudulent cash withdrawals of unemployment insurance benefits, including pandemic benefits, from Bank of America ATMs in Los Angeles County.
In total, participants withdrew at least $993,181 from 151 fraudulent accounts during the scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Demola pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, three counts of bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. She faces up to 30 years on the conspiracy and bank fraud counts, and a mandatory two-year consecutive sentence for the aggravated identity theft count, at her July 10 sentencing hearing.
Plummer pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. She faces up to 32 years in federal prison at her October sentencing hearing, prosecutors said.
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