A Chattanooga woman has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after being convicted of mail fraud involving a scheme to defraud COVID-19 unemployment programs in several states.
Dana Adkins, 45, appeared before Judge Charles E. Atchley, Jr.
Following her incarceration, she will be on three years of supervised release.
In addition, she was ordered to pay $150,804 in restitution, and to forfeit to the United States over $150,000 as part of a money judgment.
As part of the filed plea agreement with the court, Ms. Adkins pleaded guilty to an information charging her with mail fraud.
According to court documents, from June 2020 through January 2021, Ms. Adkins conspired with others to devise a scheme in which she defrauded the United States government and the governments of Tennessee, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and California to obtain money from the states’ COVID relief programs in the form of unemployment insurance proceeds funded by the United States government.
Specifically, she acquired personal information from others and used it to fraudulently make mass online applications for money earmarked by the states to provide unemployment insurance relief for those affected by the national pandemic.
She falsely claimed in the applications that the individuals whose personal information was reflected on the applications worked in those states. The states then mailed debit cards to addresses in the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Ms. Adkins would receive a percentage of the payout of the fraudulent claim.
The defendant was personally responsible for the fraudulent distribution of over $150,000 of unemployment protection insurance funds.
The scheme itself involved the fraudulent distribution of over $550,000 in unemployment protection insurance funds. Ms. Adkins is the fourth defendant to be convicted in the scheme.
“We remain committed to working with our law enforcement partners to identify and prosecute those who callously undermine the United States government’s efforts to help hard working Americans and small business owners with COVID unemployment relief funds,” said United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton, III.
He said, “Thieves and fraudsters who take these funds under false pretenses are not only stealing from American taxpayers, generally, but also specifically from their neighbors and members of the communities who have businesses that are struggling in the wake of massive losses due to the pandemic.”
Ms. Adkins stole benefits intended to assist American workers who became unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was stated.