Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraudsters Receive Prison Sentences for Improperly Releasing Benefits

On May 12th, a Cuyahoga County Comon Pleas Court Judge sentenced Francesca Figueroa-Rivera and Claudine Stavole to two years and three years of incarceration respectively for various criminal offenses related to fraudulent claims involving the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program (PUA). The two defendants previously plead guilty to various offenses including Engaging in a Pattern of Corrupt Activity, Tampering with Government Records, Bribery, and a Theft-related charge. In addition, the two defendants were ordered to pay a total of $789,282 in restitution.

Inspector General Randall J. Meyer praised the efforts of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office,
stating, "I want to acknowledge the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley and his staff for their collaboration in pursuing this complex white-collar crime case. The successful prosecution of these individuals demonstrates that the State of Ohio does not tolerate fraud and corruption of taxpayer-funded programs."

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 PUA program. The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility unemployment requirements for recipients. Consequently, 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.

On September 2, 2022, ODJFS referred an allegation of wrongdoing alleging that former Intermittent Customer Service Representative Francesca Figueroa-Rivera improperly manipulated numerous PUA claims from February 2021 to January 2022, releasing previously denied PUA benefits to ineligible claimants. Investigators obtained and analyzed Figueroa-Rivera's bank records, phone records, and her assigned State of Ohio email box to determine whether there were any connections between Figueroa-Rivera and the claimants. From their analysis of records, investigators identified 21 previously denied PUA claims Figueroa-Rivera had improperly accessed and manipulated for people she knew, fraudulently releasing in total, $519,897 in PUA benefit funds.

In addition, investigators discovered numerous phone calls and electronic payments between Figueroa-Rivera and a PUA claimant named Claudine Stavole. Investigators obtained and reviewed Stavole's bank records and discovered activity indicating a relationship between Figueroa-Rivera and Stavole. Investigators determined Figueroa-Rivera and Stavole had worked in concert to release $113,139 in previously denied PUA benefits to four claimants and to Stavole, herself. Investigators found, through Stavole's bank records, that four claimants had paid or attempted to pay Stavole a fee via Cash App. Investigators also found that Figueroa-Rivera and Stavole had worked with another individual, Richard Bencina, to submit and manipulate two fraudulent claims, resulting in the improper release of $52,902 in PUA benefit funds. Further, Stavole and Bencina, independent of Figueroa-Rivera, worked in concert together to submit seven fraudulent claims, resulting in the improper release of $103,344 in total, in PUA benefit funds.

Ohio Inspector General Report of Investigation file number 2022-CA00023 is available.