A Georgia woman has been sentenced for her part in an elaborate $30M COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud scheme and a separate firearms charge.
Tyshion Nautese Hicks, who resides in Vienna, was given a twelve-year stint in prison for her attempts to defraud the U.S. government and the support in place to help businesses endure the pandemic era.
Georgia Department of Labor (GaDOL) investigated the case alongside the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Secret Service (USSS), and the USPS Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG).
Hicks’ custodial sentence also includes a separate charge of illegal possession of a machine gun prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.
Georgia woman sees jail time for $30M fraud
“Hicks chose to commit fraud, further depleting limited funds designated to help individuals struggling to survive during the pandemic,” said Special Agent in Charge Frederick D. Houston of the U.S. Secret Service (USSS) Atlanta Field Office. “She and her co-conspirators also stole the personally identifiable information, caring only about self-enrichment, not the lives adversely affected.
According to the court report, the Georgia woman conspired with multiple accomplices, submitting “5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims to be filed with the GaDOL, resulting in at least $30 million in stolen benefits.”
It was found that Hicks and her cabal siphoned off information from identity theft victims and used this to create the vast list of fraudulent unemployment insurance claims on the GaDOL website.
They used personally identifiable information (PII) and acquired it from multiple sources, such as bribing an employee of an Atlanta-area health care and hospital network to unlawfully obtain patients’ PII from the hospital’s databases and purchasing PII from other malign sources.
The group then used prepaid debit cards mailed to addresses that they controlled in the application process and sent them to residences in Cordele and Vienna, Georgia.
Hicks, the court report found, allegedly paid for the “U.S. Postal Service (USPS) carrier to unlawfully divert mail containing debit cards loaded with over $512,000 in fraud proceeds to her and coached another co-conspirator on how to create her fictitious employer account via Facebook Messenger.”
“Homeland Security Investigations will aggressively pursue those who exploit unemployment benefits meant for those in need, ensuring that justice is served, and resources are preserved for legitimate claimants,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Steven N. Schrank of the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Atlanta Office.
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