The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office as of Monday has reached plea deals or gotten convictions for 11 of the 23 people initially charged in a large-scale pandemic unemployment fraud ring operating out of the San Mateo County Maguire Correctional Facility in 2020.
With about half of the initial cases from 2020 decided, the remaining people facing charges are all in various stages of the court system process, ranging from trial dates to preliminary hearings between late February through August, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. His office is still currently investigating more than 30 people, with the hope of completing the investigation in the next four to eight weeks, he said.
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s Office started investigating the large-scale unemployment assistance fraud ring in July at the San Mateo County Maguire Correctional Facility after an investigator with the DA’s Office overheard inmates discuss the operation while listening in on phone conversations. According to the Sheriff’s Office, the fraudulent claims were filed between June 9 through July 30 using over 30 different inmate’s names and exceeded $250,000 in unlawful payments. It was the first type of unemployment COVID-19 fraud involving inmates at the facility. The Sheriff’s Office served arrest and search warrants in August in three counties for people who were not in custody but had participated in the unemployment fraud. California has stopped 1.4 million unemployment claims for its COVID-19 unemployment relief program as of January over widespread fraud claims. It has been reported that the fraud in the whole statewide system will total about $11 billion.
On Monday, three more people entered no-contest pleas to charges involving conspiracy to commit unemployment fraud. Taisia Fauolo, 24, and Miani Pon, 21, pled no contest to one count of conspiracy to commit unemployment fraud, while Luis Mariscal, 35, pled no contest to three counts of conspiracy to commit unemployment fraud. Fauolo’s plea deal means he will get no more than 16 months in state prison added to his current time of 24 years. Mariscal will get no more than five years and four months, while Pon will get one year of probation and 90 days in county jail, with credit for time served. Both Fauolo and Mariscal had previous felony convictions and were in custody on $200,000 bail, while Pon was out of custody, the DA’s Office said. A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for March 3 for Fauolo and Mariscal. All three will also appear for a restitution hearing on March 5 to determine a payment program to pay back the money taken.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(1) comment
Did you say $11 BILLION ($11,000,000,000)? Who is going to lose their job? Start with recalling Governor Newsom.
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.