Reginald Foster Jr., the CEO of a non-profit organization that offered mentoring services to public school students, entered a guilty plea for his involvement in a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 unemployment benefits. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Foster admitted to charges of conspiracy to commit mail and bank fraud, as well as, the use of unauthorized access devices.
Foster's admission in the federal court revealed that from June to October 2020, he and others filed fraudulent claims to acquire Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds, which are a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). They used stolen identities to submit 118 fraudulent applications, deceitfully extracting nearly $1.5 million in benefits. The unlawful activity was eventually stopped by the California Employment Development Department and Bank of America, averting more than $4 million in potential losses.
These illegally obtained funds were used for several purposes, including multiple $1,000 ATM withdrawals and transfers to his non-profit called Champs Up! LLC. This entity, according to Foster's statements, provided guidance programs to middle school students in Los Angeles and Long Beach. He also passed the debit cards to co-conspirators, who continued making unauthorized transactions.
While Foster is currently out on a $50,000 bond, his sentencing is scheduled for March 24, 2025, with a maximum sentence of up to 30 years for the conspiracy count and up to 10 years for the unauthorized access count. Meanwhile, Co-defendants Shelece Counts and Isaiah Herbert Lawrence maintain their innocence, with their trial impending on January 21, 2025. While an indictment is simply an allegation, and all defendants are to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, the ramifications of Foster's actions remain undeniable.
The investigation into this case was a collaborative effort amongst various agencies, including the United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Los Angeles Unified School District Office of Inspector General. Assistant United States Attorney Ranee A. Katzenstein is leading the prosecution. Beyond this case, efforts to combat pandemic-related fraud nationwide have been ramped up by the Justice Department's COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, founded in May 2021. Anyone with information on attempted COVID-19 fraud can report it to the Department of Justice's National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline.
