SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Federal prosecutors said Friday that they have charged three Southern California women with using prison inmates' names to bilk a state agency out of a combined nearly $1.25 million in coronavirus-related unemployment benefits, the latest allegations in an ongoing scandal that has cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The three are among a dozen charged just in the greater Los Angeles area and among 150 charged federally nationwide with exploiting federal benefits that were supposed to aid those who lost their jobs during the pandemic.
Much of that fraud has been in California, where state auditors in January said the troubled Employment Development Department approved at least $810 million in the names of roughly