RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KNX) — A former employee of the California Employment Development Department was sentenced to 63 months in prison Friday, for filing fraudulent COVID unemployment relief claims and pocketing the money. It’s believed that her previous work in the EDD and as a tax preparer helped her carry out the 2020 scheme.
Gabriela Llerenas was charged with causing 200 fraudulent claims in 2020, resulting in a loss of $4.3 million, according to the Department of Justice. In addition to her prison sentence, the 44-year-old, who also goes by the name “Maria G. Sandoval,” was also ordered to pay back every penny.
“Llerenas took advantage of the expanded eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits made possible by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed into law in March 2020,” the DOJ said in a statement.
Investigators said she got several of the names, social security numbers and other identification information from her previous job as a tax preparer. In other cases, she was working with an actual EDD applicant and charging them fees to both file the claim and “release” the funds that were sent to an address other than their own.
She filed the claims between April and October 2020, the DOJ said, adding that she had the resulting EDD Bank of America debit cards mailed to several addresses — including her husband’s business, her mother’s apartment, her own home and the addresses of friends and other family members.
“In total, 197 debit cards were fraudulently issued because of this scheme,” the DOJ continued. “Judge Holcomb found that the resulting losses to EDD and the United States Treasury that Llerenas caused totaled $4,298,093. As part of the investigation, $621,124 in cash was seized from Llerenas and has been forfeited.”
Llerenas’ activity in 2020 wasn’t her first foray into fraud. In March 2002 she resigned from the EDD after admitting to fraudulently authorizing and paying disability benefits while working in the disability insurance program. That scheme landed her in federal prison for 37 months.
Anyone with additional information about Llerenas, or other allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it to the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at (866) 720-5721.
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