Former California EDD employee sentenced to 5 years in prison for $4.3 million fraud scheme

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A former employee for the California Employment Development Department living in Riverside County, was sentenced Friday to more than five years in federal prison for obtaining nearly $4.3 million dollars in fraudulent COVID-19 related unemployment relief claims.

A federal judge sentenced 44-year-old Gabriela Llerenas, of Perris, to 63 months in prison, and ordered her to pay $4,298,093 in restitution.

Llerenas took advantage of the additional COVID-19 unemployment assistance, through the CARES Act aimed at helping workers and businesses most impacted by the pandemic, to file fraudulent insurance benefits from April to October 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The fraudulent claims would contain false employment information identifying the claimants as "self-employed independent contractors" negatively affected by the pandemic, according to officials.

"Llerenas obtained some of the names, Social Security numbers and other identifying information she used to submit the fraudulent claims through her prior work as a tax preparer," said DOJ. "Llerenas also falsely stated on some of the applications that the claimants were residents of California entitled to unemployment insurance benefits administered by EDD when in fact they lived elsewhere."

RELATED: California says most of the 345,000 disability checks they suspended are fraudulent

The DOJ also says that Llerenas inflated the amounts of income reported on some applications to maximize the benefit amount.

"Llerenas charged the named claimants a fee for filling the applications, which was often paid out of the fraudulently obtained benefits. In at least one case," said DOJ. "She told the named claimant that she was still employed at EDD and could control the distribution of the unemployment insurance benefits, and then demanded an additional payment for 'releasing' the benefits."

As a result of the fraudulent applications, EDD authorized Bank of America to mail debit cards at the different addresses Llerenas provided, which included addresses to her own home, her husband's workplace, mother's apartment, friends, and other family members.

In total, 197 debit cards were fraudulently issued resulting in losses to the government totaling nearly $4.3 million. Over $600,000 in cash was seized from Llerenas as part of the investigation.

Llerenas, who had worked as a disability insurance program represented at EDD, resigned in March 2002 after she admitted to fraudulently authorizing and paying disability benefits administered by EDD. She was sentenced to 37 months in prison for that scheme.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits ended on Sept. 4, 2021.