The nine arrests that federal authorities made this morning for fraud under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program include a scheme that involved about 12 people and led to the theft of a total of $ 419,580, reported today , Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Stephen Muldrow.
According to Muldrow, the scheme consisted of transmitting false information to the Department of Labor in order to receive PUA benefits.
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[AHORA] The US prosecutor’s office provides details of federal arrests for PUA fraud.
Posted by Metro Puerto Rico on Tuesday, April 13, 2021
“Defendants engaged in misleading behavior designed to fraudulently complete several Department of Labor checks using false social security numbers,” Muldrow told a news conference in Hato Rey.
“The defendants received unemployment benefits in the mail in the form of checks, knowing that they were not allowed to receive them,” he added.
This morning’s arrest was made against nine people. Of these, eight agreed with Millisen M. Martínez Medina, accused of aggravated identity theft with other people’s social security without their authorization during the scheme.
According to the investigation launched by the federal authorities, Martínez Medina was the person responsible for running the scheme together with the nine arrested this morning.
Martínez Medina faces a mandatory two-year prison sentence for charges of aggravated identity theft, in addition to twenty years for mail fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud, ten years for stealing government money, five years for misuse of social security number and three years of supervised release if found guilty.
The rest of the people arrested this morning were identified as being Luis Cruz Reyes, partner of Martinez Medina, who earned $ 64,992; Jonathan Rivera Gutierrez, who earned $ 44,148; Jennifer Hernandez Romero, who appropriated $ 36,222; Mary L. Benítez Ortiz, with $ 32,628; Daniel Colon Diaz, with $ 68,250; Gabriel A. Robles Guzman, with $ 33,030; Denisse Sánchez Ortiz, with $ 23,172; Luis A. Flores Diaz, who received $ 20,910.
On the other hand, three other people are accused of being part of the scheme, although they have nothing to do with the group arrested today.
There are two of them José Daniel Le Hardy Figueroa, a postal employee and Cristoffer Perez Velez. Both have charges of conspiracy to commit e-mail fraud and owe the government about $ 11,388.
Finally, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office charged Happy R. Cruz Santana for fraud. He acted alone and appropriated $ 29,970.