Mother and Daughter Duo Sentenced to Prison in Two Million Dollar Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraud Scheme

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased unemployment of millions of Americans, Congress passed various programs to address the crisis, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility unemployment requirements for recipients. Consequently, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, received an unprecedented number of unemployment compensation claims. This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire intermittent and temporary contracted workers to process the claims. In fiscal year 2021, ODJFS disbursed approximately $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits and later, ODJFS identified millions of dollars of the disbursals as fraudulent. To address the rampant fraud connected to the PUA program, an investigative group was established that consisted of the Office of the Ohio Inspector General, Ohio State Highway Patrol, United States Department of Labor - Office of Inspector General, and ODJFS.

On January 13, 2023, ODJFS referred an allegation of wrongdoing to the Office of the Ohio Inspector General involving former intermittent Customer Service Representative (CSR) Rashanna Burley. As a CSR, Burley was responsible for reviewing PUA claims assigned to her to verify that all required documents had been submitted. The referral alleged that Burley had improperly accessed unassigned PUA claims and removed holds or blocks on the claims which she was not authorized to do, resulting in ineligible payments to claimants.

From their analysis of records, investigators discovered that Velma Cain, the mother of Rashanna Burley and former CSR, had also improperly accessed and taken unauthorized actions in a number of the same claims. Investigators also discovered that many of the claimants were known relatives or personal associates of Cain and Burley. Investigators determined that the unauthorized actions of Cain and Burley resulted in the fraudulent release of $1,582,251 and $355,382 in PUA monies, respectively.

On April 24, 2026, a Franklin County judge sentenced both Cain and Burley to prison sentences with a minimum period of incarceration of four years and a maximum of six years consecutive to nine additional months on a different count. The Court further ordered the defendants to pay restitution in the amounts of $1,582,251 and $355,382, respectively.

Ohio Inspector General Report of Investigation file number 2023-CA00001 is available.