Makiah Miles, a 30-year-old from Compton, California, is headed to the slammer for 21 months after masterminding a brazen unemployment insurance scam from behind bars.
Alongside her accomplice, 51-year-old Santa Maria resident Apryl Weston, Miles orchestrated a scheme to swindle the California Employment Development Department (EDD) out of nearly $250,000. The scam relied on the duo obtaining the personal information of fellow inmates and using it to file fake claims in their names, as well as Miles’ own.
Court documents revealed that Miles, a convicted DUI manslaughter offender, had previously been collecting intel on her cellmates’ identities, including their dates of birth and social security numbers. She would then share this information with Weston, who would submit the claims on their behalf.
The fake applications, filed between June and December 2020, falsely claimed that Miles and the other inmates worked various occupations, including childcare providers, cosmetologists, and hairdressers, and that they recently became unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Weston, Miles’ mother, took the fall for the scheme, receiving a sentence of 5 months in prison and 5 months of home detention. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Investigative Services Unit, the FBI, and the EDD all contributed to the investigation that brought the duo to justice.
Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Barton is leading the prosecution of the case, which is part of the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force. This interagency team, established by the United States Department of Justice, focuses on high-profile pandemic relief fraud cases across the state.
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Key Facts
- State: California
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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