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Federal agents tracked all of the claims for benefits to a single IP address and telephone number belonging to Maurice Mills, 28, of Union Township, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Surveillance cameras also caught Mills using an unemployment insurance benefits debit card to make an ATM withdrawal, he said.
“Many of these claims were in the names of individuals located in Texas and directed the benefits to be sent to locations in New Jersey,” Carpenito said.
Of $1 million in submitted claims, $400,000 was paid out, the U.S. attorney said.
Carpenito credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service, as well as inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, with the investigation leading to the charges. He also thanked the New York State Department of Labor’s Office of Special Investigations for its assistance.
Handling the case for the government is are Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan of Carpenito’s Cybercrime Unit in Newark and Trial Attorney Jessica Peck of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.
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