A former Department of Veterans Affairs registered nurse woman pleaded guilty on July 26 to participating in a conspiracy to defraud multiple state workforce agencies of COVID-19 pandemic-related benefits intended for unemployed workers.
According to court documents, Heather Huffman, 52, of Pleasant Hill, California worked with co-conspirators to defraud the Virginia Employment Commission, the Washington State Employment Security Department, and the California Employment Development Department of unemployment insurance benefits by submitting materially false and misleading applications in the names of identity theft victims, witting co-conspirators, and inmates of various correctional facilities from April 2020 through at least March 2021.
During the course of the conspiracy, Huffman worked at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center in Richmond, according to a Department of Justice release.
“Huffman used VA assets to further the conspirators’ scheme and artifice to defraud by utilizing her work computer to submit false and misleading UI applications to state workforce agencies, among other things,” the release stated.
Huffman and her co-conspirators obtained and shared among themselves the personal identifying information of identity theft victims and inmates, created and maintained email accounts purportedly belonging to the ostensible applicants, and falsified and forged various documents – including state and federal wage and tax forms – to substantiate the false information in the UI applications they submitted, according to the release.
Once their fraudulent UI applications were approved, the conspirators would, on a weekly basis, file false certifications of unemployment status, resulting in the dispersal of additional UI benefits by state workforce agencies.
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Huffman is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 29. She faces a maximum sentence of 32 years and a mandatory minimum sentence of 2 years in prison. Co-conspirators Sheldon L. Huffman, Anthowan Daniels, and Dorothea Rosado have pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme and will also be sentenced in November.
Huffman and her co-conspirators obtained over $2 million in unemployment insurance benefits intended for unemployed workers as a result of the scheme.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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