A California man has been sentenced to an additional 55 months in prison for directing a $2.6 million fraud scheme while already incarcerated, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Ratha Yin, 36, previously pleaded guilty on November 10, 2022, to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. From June 2020 to at least September 2021, Yin conspired with others, including his wife Amanda Yin and Steven Mavromatis, to fraudulently obtain unemployment benefits by submitting false claims using the identities of at least 136 people.
Yin was an inmate at the California State Prison at Centinela in Imperial, California when he devised the scheme, exploiting funds administered as part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 (the CARES Act). These funds were intended to provide unemployment insurance to those who lost their jobs due to the economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the people whose identities Yin used were incarcerated at prisons and other facilities throughout the country. He directed Mavromatis to create email addresses for these individuals and then submitted claims to California's Employment Development Department (EDD) online system using those email addresses.
After receiving acknowledgements from EDD, Yin certified many of the fraudulent unemployment insurance claims himself and directed Mavromatis to certify other claims. He also instructed Mavromatis to rent mailboxes in San Leandro to receive the pre-loaded debit cards containing the unemployment benefits. Mavromatis and at least four other individuals then used the debit cards to withdraw the fraudulently obtained funds in cash from ATMs. A portion of these funds was provided to Yin's wife, who deposited the cash into various financial accounts, including cryptocurrency wallets.
The scheme led to the fraudulent acquisition of at least $2,646,221. Ratha Yin, Amanda Yin, and Mavromatis were indicted by a federal grand jury on November 2, 2022, on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as conspiracy to launder proceeds of fraud. In addition to the 55-month prison sentence, Ratha Yin has been ordered to serve five years of supervised release. Furthermore, a hearing is scheduled for October 5, 2023, to determine restitution.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sentenced Amanda Yin to five years of probation, including eight months of home detention, while Steven Mavromatis was sentenced to time served (6 days) and five years of supervised release. The case is being prosecuted by the Special Prosecutions Section of the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and was investigated by the FBI with assistance from agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor-Office of the Inspector General and the California EDD.
