A Kapolei woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison this week after admitting she stole a coworker's identity to collect fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits while also filing a bogus claim for herself. Phoebe Trinh, also known as Phuong Trinh Ngoc Vo, 33, must serve six months of supervised release once she's out, and she's on the hook for $78,474 in restitution plus forfeiture of $36,265.
A Scheme Built on a Family Restaurant's Payroll
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Trinh was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Shanlyn A.S. Park in Honolulu federal court after pleading guilty in April. Prosecutors say that between May and October 2020, Trinh submitted a fraudulent state unemployment insurance claim for herself even though she was employed at the time, and separately filed a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claim using the stolen personal information of a worker at her family's Kapolei restaurant, without that employee ever knowing.
The federal CARES Act of 2020 created the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program specifically to support self-employed workers and independent contractors who were shut out of regular state benefits, per the same Justice Department account. That safety-net design is part of what made the fraud possible, since PUA relied heavily on self-reported eligibility during a chaotic rollout.
From a 12-Count Indictment to a Guilty Plea
Trinh's case looked far more dire on paper before she struck a plea deal. A federal grand jury had returned a 12-count indictment against her in January 2025, charging nine counts of wire fraud — each carrying a potential sentence of up to 20 years — along with three counts of aggravated identity theft, the Justice Department reported at the time. Wire fraud convictions can also carry fines up to $250,000 per count, though Trinh ultimately resolved the case with a guilty plea rather than a trial.
The two-year prison term she received wasn't up to the judge's discretion. Under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A, a conviction for aggravated identity theft carries a mandatory two-year sentence that must run consecutively to any other punishment, leaving federal judges no room to shorten it, according to data from the United States Sentencing Commission. The commission's fiscal year 2025 figures show that roughly 92 percent of people convicted under that statute were also convicted of an underlying felony, such as wire fraud, mirroring Trinh's case.
A Historic Judge on the Bench
Judge Park, who handed down the sentence, holds a notable distinction of her own. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in November 2023 after serving on the Hawaii state bench, becoming the first Native Hawaiian woman to serve as a federal district judge in U.S. history, according to The 19th News. Before her judicial appointment, Park spent 20 years as an assistant federal public defender in the District of Hawaii.
The Scale of Pandemic Benefit Fraud in Hawaii
Trinh's case is a small piece of a much larger problem that overwhelmed Hawaii's unemployment system during the pandemic. The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reported paying out roughly $46.5 million in fraudulent Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits in late 2020 while blocking more than $616 million in fraudulent claims, according to figures relayed by the Hawaii Filipino Chronicle. The state processed over 110,000 emergency PUA applications in 2020 alone, a volume that left the door open for schemes like Trinh's to slip through.
The fraud extends well beyond Hawaii. The U.S. Government Accountability Office estimated in an April 2025 report to Congress that total fraud across all state and federal pandemic unemployment benefit programs ranged between $100 billion and $135 billion nationwide, out of more than $880 billion in total pandemic unemployment disbursements. Federal enforcement has been chasing that fraud aggressively: the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General reported in March that its pandemic unemployment insurance investigations have led to charges against more than 2,300 individuals, over 1,800 convictions, and $2.2 billion in monetary recoveries, aided by a dedicated National Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force.
Why Prosecutors Are Still Filing Charges Years Later
Cases like Trinh's continue to surface years after pandemic relief programs ended in part because of extended legal timelines. Lawmakers introduced legislation in early 2025 to stretch the statute of limitations for prosecuting pandemic unemployment fraud from five years to ten, matching an extension already enacted for Paycheck Protection Program and EIDL fraud, according to the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means. Federal law enforcement reported more than 1,600 open, uncharged criminal matters tied to COVID relief fraud as of early 2025.
Kapolei has already seen other pandemic-era relief fraud cases move through federal court. In a separate prosecution, Kapolei business owners agreed to forfeit a Kapolei property and more than $2.4 million in total assets after fraudulently obtaining $1.365 million in Paycheck Protection Program funds, according to a report from the FDIC Office of Inspector General. Joint federal task forces involving IRS Criminal Investigation and the Treasury's Office of Inspector General continue pursuing similar relief fraud cases across Oahu.
It remains unclear how much of the $78,474 in restitution ordered against Trinh will ultimately be recovered by federal authorities.
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