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A federal grand jury indictment unsealed Friday, April 22, alleges that Albany resident Wendell Giles, age 51, conspired with another NYSDOL worker to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits, including federally funded pandemic relief benefits.
Giles pleaded not guilty Friday, April 22, to charges of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Federal prosecutors claim Giles and Carl DiVeglia III, of Albany, submitted fake unemployment insurance applications using the names of other people, and then abused their access to NYSDOL computer systems to release benefits payments.
DiVeglia has already pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. In doing so, he admitted responsibility for over $1.6 million in losses to NYSDOL and to personally receiving nearly $225,000 in fraud proceeds, federal prosecutors said.
“As alleged, Wendell Giles breached the public’s trust by taking money from government programs designed to help out-of-work New Yorkers during a global pandemic,” US Attorney Carla Freedman said in a statement.
“The integrity of government benefits programs depends on the honesty of the people who help to administer them. We continue to prioritize COVID fraud prosecutions to maintain public confidence in these programs and to hold accountable those who have abused the system.”
If convicted, Giles faces up to 20 years in federal prison on the mail fraud charge and up to two years for aggravated identity theft. He also faces up to $250,000 in fines.
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