Washington employee filed false COVID jobless claims to pocket $130,000, feds say
A former employee of the Washington State’s Employment Security Department is accused of filing at least $360,000 in false unemployment benefits related to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal authorities said.
Reyes De La Cruz III, 47, of Moses Lake, Washington, was arrested Friday and faces 20 federal charges including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, extortion under color of official right and bribery of an agent of an organization receiving federal funds, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
De La Cruz is accused of pocketing over $130,000, including $21,000 in “kickback payments.”
As an intake agent for the government agency, De La Cruz helped file pandemic unemployment benefits when he was hired in April 2020 — as COVID spread across the country. But he was fired six months later, according to the news release. He had previously worked at the agency from 1996 to 2003.
“In this case, an insider used his official access and knowledge to illegally enrich himself,” Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman said. “Even as ESD faced the challenges of processing the high volume of legitimate claims, he chose to take advantage of his position to worsen the unprecedented fraud on unemployment benefits.”
De La Cruz is accused of defrauding the unemployment benefit system in three ways, according to the news release.
- He filed for unemployment benefits under different names and had the money put on debit cards that were mailed to addresses in Moses Lake — where he lived.
- Then he tried to restart claims after his firing in October to receive more payments from the unemployment benefits. He defrauded more than $110,000 from the system by doing this.
- He also made false entries into the database for his friends and family, who didn’t qualify for the benefits, the news release states. As a result, his friends and family received thousands in lump sums. If they wouldn’t pay him his portion, he threatened to remove their claim from the system.
On Monday, he will make his initial court appearance on the indictment in Spokane.
This story was originally published September 24, 2021 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Washington employee filed false COVID jobless claims to pocket $130,000, feds say."
