COVID-19 Unemployment Scheme Lands Prison For Milwaukee Woman: Feds

MILWAUKEE, WI — After stealing nearly $500,000 in unemployment benefits that were made specially available during the coronavirus pandemic, a Milwaukee woman who pleaded guilty to wire fraud was sentenced to prison, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin Gregory Haanstad.

U.S. District Court Judge Brett Ludwig on Thursday handed down a 33-month sentence in federal prison, just shy of three years, for 43-year-old Nikki Brown, according to the attorney's news release. Authorities said she took $494,498 altogether while recruiting other people in six different states, including Wisconsin, to help file fraudulent federal unemployment claims.

Brown obtained personal information from dozens of people by promising to pay them a portion of the fraudulent cash and then used the information to file false claims amounting to nearly half a million dollars, according to Haanstad's news release, which cites documents filed in the case.

The sentencing comes amid a larger effort to find and disrupt fraud related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 1,500 people have so far been criminally charged with losses of around $1.1 billion and around $1.2 billion in relief funds have been seized, according to the news release.

“Prosecuting those who steal from federal benefits programs remains a top priority for the Department of Justice and my office," said Haanstad in the news release. "We are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to hold those, like Ms. Brown, who enrich themselves by defrauding COVID-19 benefit programs fully accountable.”

The U.S. Attorney General established a task force to investigate fraud associated with the pandemic in May 2021.