Cynthia Hernandez of Victorville pleaded guilty to gaining $515,000 by filing 29 fraudulent COVID-19 relief applications using the names of California state prisoners Jan. 23.
She will be sentenced on one count of mail fraud and one count of access device fraud April 17. She faces a maximum sentence of 35 years for both counts, according to the Department of Justice’s press release.
Federal prosecutors had originally also charged Hernandez with two counts of aggravated identity theft in their Sept. 9 indictment.
Hernandez had filed the fraudulent applications with California’s Employment Development Department (EDD). The department was carrying out a new program using funds from the federal CARES Act.
Under the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, applicants did not need to submit any supporting documents, according to the indictment. Applicants needed to provide only their name, Social Security Number and mailing address.
Hernandez worked with others to carry out the fraud, the indictment claims.
She was arrested Sept. 14.
California processed 19.5 million claims from March, 2020, to Jan.16, 2021, paying more than $500 billion, according to the EDD.. The department said they confirmed, as of January, 2021, that 10% of their payments were fraudulent, and claimed they prevented $60 billion in fraudulent claims before being paid out.
Case information
Case No. 5:22-cr-00217.
California Central District Judge Mark Scarsi presided.
Haoxiaohan Cai and Solomon Kim prosecuted.
Ralph Rios of El Monte Law Group represented Hernandez.
Read the indictment here.
Read the plea agreement here.
