Joseph Osei, Pandemic Fraud, New York 2020

Pandemic Fraud Hits Home in Queens

Joseph Osei, a 29-year-old man from Jamaica, New York, has been charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft for obtaining pandemic-related unemployment insurance benefits using stolen identities.

According to the indictment, Osei, also known as 'Kyngjo,' fraudulently obtained unemployment insurance benefits worth more than $100,000 in the names of four other people from about August 2020 through November 2020.

Osei appeared yesterday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, New York, and was released pending an arraignment before United States Magistrate Judge Christian F. Hummel on February 6, 2024 in Albany.

The mail fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. The aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory term of 2 years in prison, to be imposed consecutively to any other term of imprisonment.

Osei's case is being investigated by the United States Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection's New York Field Office and the New York State Department of Labor's Office of Special Investigations.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping and Joshua R. Rosenthal are prosecuting the case.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.

If you have information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19, you can report it by calling the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndny/pr/queens-man-charged-pandemic-fraud