Jaime Ornelas, Mail Fraud Conspiracy, California 2025

A Stanislaus County mother-son duo has been sentenced to prison for their roles in a scheme to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims, netting more than $150,000 in benefits, according to the Grimy Times investigation.

Jaime Ornelas, 27, formerly of Modesto, California, was sentenced to three years and one month in prison by U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution for conspiracy to commit mail fraud, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Kimberly A. Sanchez.

On June 6, 2025, Jaime Ornelas’s mother and co-defendant, Misty Ornelas, 48, of Turlock, was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

According to court documents, beginning in June 2020, Jaime Ornelas and Misty Ornelas operated a scheme to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance benefit claims to the California Employment Development Department (EDD). Jaime Ornelas, who was then-incarcerated at the High Desert State Prison in Lassen County, provided Misty Ornelas personally identifiable information of fellow inmates. Misty Ornelas then used that information to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance benefit applications to EDD. The submitted applications misrepresented the eligibility of the inmates, including that they had last worked within the prior few months and had become unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fraudulent claims were worth more than $150,000.

The case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and EDD. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chan Hee Chu and Denise N. Yasinow prosecuted the case.

This case is part of the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force, which is one of the interagency COVID-19 fraud strike forces established by the United States. The California Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources in the Eastern and Central Districts of California, and focuses on large-scale, multistate, and egregious pandemic relief fraud.

The strike force uses prosecutor-led teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief money.

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