Former EDD employee pleads guilty to unemployment fraud involving prison inmates

By Web staff

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    CALIFORNIA (KCRA) — A Southern California woman has pled guilty to Employment Development Department fraud in a scheme involving her boyfriend and other prisoners.

Nyika Gomez was a contract employee with EDD in San Diego working as a call center agent.

Court records show that Gomez was in a relationship with a prisoner in Sacramento.

Her boyfriend would supply the names of other prisoners in order to apply for money from the pandemic unemployment assistance program, or PUA.

She also used the names of people whose identities had been stolen in other states, according to the court documents.

Gomez would backdate the claims to the maximum amount, more than $19,000 at a time.

She pled guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. She will spend two years in state prison and have to pay back more than $80,000 in restitution.

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