Cynthia Hernandez of Victorville was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison and $500,000 in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud.
Hernandez, also known as Cynthia Roberts, filed 29 fraudulent applications to the California Employment Development Department’s COVID-19 unemployment program, prosecutors claimed.
She used information from prisoners at Corcoran State Prison to file the applications, and would send some of the benefits to the inmates or inmates’ family members.
“(Hernandez) orchestrated a sophisticated scheme that deprived the state of over ($500,000) meant to provide relief for vulnerable taxpayers who were unable to work due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing
