Feds indict inmate, Fresno man in latest California unemployment fraud prosecution

Federal prosecutors have indicted a California prison inmate in yet another case involving the state’s massive unemployment insurance fraud scandal.

Acting U.S. Attorney Phillip Talbert announced the indictment of Jason Vertz, 51, of Fresno and Alana Powers, 45, an inmate at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.

Both defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in a scheme in which they allegedly used Powers’ name, as well as those of her fellow inmates, to defraud the state Employment Development Department of more than $260,000 and cost the federal government more than $103,000, court documents say.

The indictment was unsealed Tuesday following the arrest of Vertz, who pleaded not guilty in federal court in Fresno and was ordered detained.

According to the indictment, Vertz and Powers conspired by telephone and through emails from May 2020 through December to submit claims to EDD falsely stating that she and other inmates had worked from February 2020 through September “as wage earners or were self-employed as maids, cleaners, or fabrication welders, or other occupations, and that they were currently available to work.”

“As Vertz and Powers were aware, these claims were false in that Powers and the other inmates were not so previously employed or newly unemployed, but were incarcerated and not employed within the relevant time period,” the indictment says.

As part of the scheme, Vertz and Powers discussed paying the other inmates $600 for the use of their personal identifying information, and planned to keep the rest of the money, the indictment says.

The indictment is the latest is a series of prosecutions that has ensnared prison inmates, former EDD workers and others accused of participating in a fraud that is estimated at having cost the state at least $11 billion.

Inmates and others worldwide have been accused of submitting phony unemployment claims to California officials during the COVID-19 pandemic, using their own and other individuals identities, including one who submitted a claim under the name of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.