Nelson Roche Diaz, COVID Unemployment Fraud, Massachusetts 2025

State: Massachusetts
Category: Fraud &#038; Financial Crimes
Source: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/brockton-man-pleads-guilty-covid-unemployment-fraud" style="color:#cc0000;" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">DOJ Press Release ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Â Ã¢â‚¬â€

Brockton Man Pleads Guilty to COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Scam in Massachusetts

A Brockton man, Nelson Roche Diaz, 29, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to submitting false information in an effort to obtain COVID-19 unemployment benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.

According to court documents, Roche Diaz and his co-conspirator, Dominik Manigo, submitted fraudulent claims for PUA on the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance portal in May 2020. The pair also submitted fake letters claiming the pandemic had impacted their employment at a restaurant in Boston, but neither Roche Diaz nor Manigo ever worked at the restaurant.

The duo received over $43,000 in PUA and related funds.

Roche Diaz pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Myong J. Joun has scheduled sentencing for January 13, 2026.

The charges of wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy provide for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes that govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

The U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley, Jonathan Mellone, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Labor Racketeering and Fraud, Northeast Region, and other officials announced the plea today.

This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation.

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