{"id":56716,"date":"2024-06-17T16:30:43","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T23:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=56716"},"modified":"2024-06-17T16:30:43","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T23:30:43","slug":"former-college-football-player-guilty-of-fraud-of-more-than-1-million-of-the-covid-19-unemployment-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=56716","title":{"rendered":"Former College Football Player Guilty of Fraud of More Than $1 Million of the COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Officials said a former college football player and Orange County man pleaded guilty Monday to orchestrating a fraudulent scheme, federal officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Abdul-Malik McClain sought more than $1 million and obtained more than $280,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/b>\u00a0McClain, 24, most recently of Coto de Caza, plead guilty to one count of mail fraud.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cInstead of using his time at a major university to advance his athletic and academic life, this defendant took advantage of a public health emergency to fraudulently obtain government benefits,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMr. McLain squandered his gifts and opportunities only to defraud taxpayers whose hard-earned money was appropriated for deserving victims during the Covid era,\u201d said Krysti Hawkins, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to his plea agreement, McClain filed fraudulent unemployment benefit claims while a member of his university\u2019s football team. He also organized and assisted a group of fellow football players in filing fraudulent claims, including those under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program established by Congress in response to the economic impact of COVID-19.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"fraud\"McClain and others submitted their claims to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which administers the state\u2019s unemployment insurance (UI) benefit program. These claims included false information regarding the claimants\u2019 alleged prior employment, pandemic-related job loss, and job-seeking efforts in California.<\/span><\/p>\n

The false statements in the UI applications led the EDD to authorize Bank of America to mail debit cards to the named claimants, often to addresses controlled by McClain. As a result, McClain, rather than the named claimants, received the debit cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"These debit cards were loaded with various amounts of fraudulently obtained benefits, ranging from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. <\/span><\/p>\n

The recipients, including McClain himself, in many instances, used the debit cards to make cash withdrawals at ATMs and fund personal expenses. <\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, McClain sometimes took a cut of the fraudulently obtained benefits for assisting others in filing fraudulent UI applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

McClain\u2019s and his co-schemers\u2019 fraudulent applications sought at least $1,056,092 in UI benefits from EDD and led to receiving at least $283,063 in fraudulently obtained benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald scheduled a September 16 sentencing hearing, at which McClain will face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAbdul-Malik McClain defrauded our nation\u2019s unemployment insurance (UI) system by filing for UI benefits in the names of identity theft victims, while so many deserving people were suffering from pandemic-related economic challenges,\u201d said Quentin Heiden, Special Agent in Charge, Western Region, United States Department of Labor Office of Inspector General. \u201cThe benefits were intended for those who truly needed it, not for greedy individuals who chose to exploit the system.?<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI; the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Assistant United States Attorney Kerry L. Quinn of the Major Frauds Section is prosecuting this case.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES\u00a0 Officials said a former college football player and Orange County man pleaded guilty Monday to orchestrating a fraudulent scheme, federal officials stated. \u00a0Abdul-Malik McClain sought more than $1 million and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFormer College Football Player Guilty of Fraud of More Than $1 Million of the COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES\u00a0 Officials said a former college football player and Orange County man pleaded guilty Monday to orchestrating a fraudulent scheme, federal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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