Randa Allison, Unemployment Insurance Fraud, Tennessee 2024

Randa Allison, 29, of Stevenson, Alabama, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for her role in a COVID-19 unemployment insurance fraud scheme that defrauded states including Tennessee, Alabama, Pennsylvania, and California of over $550,000.

According to court documents, Allison conspired with others to devise a scheme in which she defrauded the United States government and several state governments to obtain money from the states' COVID relief programs in the form of unemployment insurance proceeds funded by the United States government.

Allison acquired personal information from others and used it to fraudulently make mass online applications for money earmarked by the states to provide unemployment insurance relief for those affected by the national pandemic.

She falsely claimed in the applications that the individuals whose personal information was reflected on the applications worked in those states. The states then mailed debit cards to addresses in the Eastern District of Tennessee, and Allison would receive a percentage of the payout of the fraudulent claim.

The scheme involved the fraudulent distribution of over $550,000 in unemployment protection insurance funds, with Allison personally responsible for the fraudulent distribution of over $120,000 of unemployment protection insurance funds.

Allison was sentenced by the Honorable Curtis L. Collier in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga on February 28, 2024. Following her incarceration, she will be on five years of supervised release. In addition, she was ordered to pay $120,025 in restitution to the Pennsylvania and Alabama Departments of Labor, and to forfeit to the United States $100,225 as part of a money judgment.

Allison pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Mail Fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1349.

“As if the pandemic were not traumatic enough for our communities, fraudsters like the defendant callously took advantage of the crisis to obtain a financial windfall,” said United States Attorney Francis M. Hamilton, III.

“Randa Faye Allison and her co-conspirators filed fraudulent Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims with multiple state workforce agencies, enriching themselves by defrauding a program intended to assist struggling American workers during an unprecedented global pandemic,” said Mathew Broadhurst, Special Agent-in-Charge, Southeast Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.

The investigation was conducted by the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and the FBI as part of the Smoky Mountains Financial Crimes Task Force.

The Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across the government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edtn/pr/randa-allison-sentenced-14-months-prison-covid-19-unemployment-insurance-fraud-scheme