Citrus Heights man pleads guilty in $1 million EDD unemployment fraud scheme
A Citrus Heights man pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento on Thursday to mail fraud in connection with a scheme to collect unauthorized unemployment benefits prosecutors said netted about $1 million, federal court records show.
DeShawn Oshaea Campbell, 36, was the second defendant to plead guilty in the case, which prosecutors said involved more than 50 fraudulent unemployment claims. His alleged accomplice, Rochelle Pasley, 34, pleaded guilty in February to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the same scheme.
In a separate case, Campbell also pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records show.
The case, which is being heard in federal court in Sacramento, stems out of more than 2,000 investigations launched into unemployment benefit fraud in California, which reached record heights during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fraudsters seeking to take advantage of programs meant to help workers who lost their livelihoods during the health emergency filed false claims and stole benefit cards, leading to an estimated $20 billion in losses for the state’s Employment Development Department.
The agency has since investigated allegations of fraud aggressively and recovered about $6 billion of those losses, the EDD website says.
Prosecutors said Campbell and Pasley submitted claims on behalf of people who were not eligible for unemployment benefits in California and then used addresses they controlled to receive debit cards loaded with their payments. The agency wound up paying the two more than $1 million, acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith said in a Thursday news release.
Court records show Campbell pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in the case, connected to a Bank of America debit card mailed Aug. 19, 2020.
Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 7, court records show. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible fine of $250,000 for the mail fraud, and 10 years and a $250,000 fine on the firearm charge, Beckwith said.
Palsey is scheduled to be sentenced June 26. She faces as many as 22 years in prison, according to previous reporting by The Sacramento Bee.
