California Institute for Women prisoner Natalie Le Demola was sentenced to seven years in state prison after being convicted of leading a COVID-19 relief fraud scheme that gained over $1.5 million.
Demola was already serving a life sentence for a murder conviction where the victim was her mother.
As part of the July 10 sentence, Demola is also required to pay back $933,181.
“(Demola) led and organized a scheme in which she and her co-conspirators pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated for residents of California who were unemployed on account of the COVID-19 pandemic,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “(Demola) made a cost-benefit analysis and decided that the money and influence, including among fellow inmates, that she stood to gain was worth the additional penalties she faced if she were caught.”
A sentencing memorandum for Demola is not public record.
Demola was charged along with 12 others April 27, 2022. The indictment brought 39 combined criminal counts.
The complaint accused Demola of getting Social Security information from other inmates, and sharing them with her former cellmate, who was paroled. Demola also instructed her accomplice on how to file the unemployment claims, prosecutors claimed.
The sentencing memorandum claimed she executed the scheme with a California Department of Corrections employee. Court documents do not name the employee.
Demola pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, three counts of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft March 9.
Police caught on to the ring after pulling over two of Demola’s co-defendants, Felicite King and Cleshay Johnson, for driving on the wrong side of the road and not having a front license plate on Sept. 6, 2020, according to an affidavit. The officers found receipts for ATM withdrawals using multiple Employment Development Department accounts in King’s car. Investigators interviewed the inmates whose Social Security information was used to open those accounts, and traced the fraud back to Demola.
Case information
Case No. 2:22-cr-00205
California Central District Judge John Walter presided.
Read the complaint here.
Read the indictment here.
