The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has prosecuted six Beaumont, Texas citizens for unemployment insurance fraud and has ordered them to pay $63,379 in restitutions.
While the TWC did not elaborate on how the fraud was perpetrated, local ABC affiliate KBMT-TV reported that it was uncovered as part of the TWC's statewide efforts to uncover unemployment insurance scams. In the first half of 2009 the TWC is seeking restitutions totaling more than $460,000 in UI frauds they have uncovered.
The prosecutions come as states across the U.S. struggle to keep their unemployment insurance funding available as unemployment rates continue to rise. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner recently stated that he did not feel that unemployment rates may begin dropping until the middle of 2010.
According to KBMT, the recovered money will be returned to the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund where it will be available to Texas resident who qualify for unemployment insurance.
The TWC's findings come weeks after a similar case in Revere, Massachusetts. On July 21, 52-year-old Domingos Gomes was ordered to pay restitutions of more than $164,000 and sentenced to 18 to 24 months in prison after pleading guilty to 286 counts of unemployment fraud, 15 counts of larceny over $250, and four counts of identity fraud after using numerous identities to apply for unemployment claims over the course of four years, according to the Boston Globe.
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Posted: August 5, 2009
