Two more defendants involved in a scheme to defraud the United States by filing false claims for pandemic unemployment benefits have been sentenced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia announced Monday.
Clinton Michael Altizer and Jeramy Blake Farmer were each sentenced to 1 year and 1 day in prison for their roles in the conspiracy, which submitted false unemployment claims through the Virginia Employment Commission between March 2020 and September 2021.
The fraudulent claims were filed using personal identification information from inmates housed at Southwest Virginia Regional Jail Authority (SWVRJA) facilities, as well as others, to claim benefits for individuals who were ineligible for assistance.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office also reported that other co-conspirators, including Christopher Webb, Russell Stiltner, Jessica Lester, Cara Camille Bailey, and others, were previously sentenced to prison terms ranging from 1 year and 1 day to 2 years and 3 months.
Jonathan Webb, who recruited co-conspirators, received a 4-year prison sentence and was ordered to pay $150,218 in restitution. All defendants were ordered to pay restitution for their individual fraudulent claims.
The fraud scheme, orchestrated by Josef Brown, Jonathan Webb, and Crystal Shaw, resulted in approximately $341,205 in fraudulent claims being paid. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the state of Virginia paid approximately $1.1 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims during the height of the pandemic between April 2020 and March 2021.
