Source: United States Department of Justice News
BOSTON – A Stoneham man was sentenced today for his involvement in a fraudulent scheme to obtain COVID-19-related unemployment assistance using stolen personal information.
Daniel Maleus, 34, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel to three years in prison and three years of supervised release. Maleus was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $526,423. On Nov. 2, 2021, Maleus pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, five counts of wire fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft.
In March 2020, in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which among other things, created a temporary federal unemployment insurance program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). The PUA program, which in Massachusetts is administered by the Department of Unemployment Assistance, provided unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who were not eligible for other types of unemployment benefits.
Between April 2020 and April 2021, Maleus filed and conspired with others to file over 50 fraudulent PUA claims using the stolen personal information of others. Maleus used email accounts that he created in the names of the victims and directed payments from the fraudulent claims to bank accounts that he controlled. Maleus and his co-conspirators obtained $526,423 in PUA funds from this scheme.
United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins; Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division; and Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations made the announcement. Special assistance was provided by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Markham of Rollins’ Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit prosecuted the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.