SCRANTON, PA – Julio Pozo Gonzalez, 30, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, will spend the next 30 months behind bars after being sentenced for a brazen scheme to defraud the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion handed down the sentence today, bringing a measure of accountability to a callous exploitation of a system designed to help those in need.
The PUA program, established under the March 2020 CARES Act, was a lifeline thrown to Americans reeling from the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aimed to provide benefits to those ineligible for traditional unemployment. Instead, Gonzalez and his crew saw an opportunity for personal enrichment, turning a safety net into a personal piggy bank.
According to U.S. Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft on July 29, 2021. From July 2020 to February 2021, the operation involved the systematic theft of identification information, used to file fraudulent PUA claims. The scheme wasn’t about a few desperate dollars; it was a calculated effort to siphon off nearly $270,000.
The break in the case came on February 20, 2021, when Pennsylvania State troopers pulled Gonzalez over. A search of his vehicle revealed a black pouch stashed under the driver’s seat – containing 17 U.S. bank debit cards and over $3,000 in cash. A subsequent search of his phone confirmed the cards belonged to stolen identities used to apply for pandemic benefits. Surveillance footage later identified Gonzalez withdrawing cash from ATMs across the Middle District of Pennsylvania. A total of $269,777 in fraudulent benefits were deposited into the 17 fraudulently obtained accounts.
The conspirators weren’t just applying for benefits; they were receiving the ill-gotten gains through the mail, using stolen identities to collect debit cards. Gonzalez then used those cards to drain ATMs. The intent wasn’t just $269,000 – they were aiming for more. As part of his sentence, Gonzalez has been ordered to pay $267,777 in restitution, a small measure of recompense for the damage he inflicted.
This investigation was a joint effort by the Pennsylvania State Police and the Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd K. Hinkley leading the prosecution. The case is part of a larger, national effort coordinated by the Attorney General’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Anyone with information about COVID-19 fraud is urged to report it to the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via their online complaint form: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
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Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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