A Tracy resident was sentenced to a nine-year prison term for orchestrating a fraudulent scheme that exploited California's unemployment insurance system during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez handed down the sentence to 33-year-old Kaymeisha Keyes, who was also ordered to pay restitution amounting to over $1.1 million, the U.S. Attorney's Office revealed. Keyes, found guilty of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, submitted more than 70 bogus claims to California's Employment Development Department (EDD) seeking benefits under the pandemic-specific programs.
The details, as described in court documents on U.S. Attorney's Office, showcase a calculated operation where Keyes fraudulently collected the personal information of numerous individuals to slyly file for unemployment benefits. This information included sensitive details such as names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers. These claims were filled with falsehoods, claiming these individuals had been economically struck down by the pandemic, despite the fact that they were either not unemployed, ineligible for benefits, or entirely unaware of Keyes’s actions on their behalf.
Keyes managed to successfully deceive ID.me, a company partnered with the EDD for identity verification, by submitting manipulated images of driver's licenses and facial photos of herself and accomplices. These counterfeit verifications paved the way for Keyes to submit and at times receive approval for fraudulent claims, at which point EDD authorized the release of funds onto mailed out debit cards from Bank of America. Keyes’s scheme, which sought to siphon off more than $2 million, caused actual financial losses to the EDD and federal funds surpassing $1.1 million.
The successful prosecution stemmed from the collaborative efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Office of Correctional Safety, and California EDD - Investigation Division, assisted by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. The case was a part of a concerted crackdown effort by the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force, a joint effort specially formed to aggressively pursue and prosecute large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud, such as the one masterminded by Keyes.
