Rebecca Lynn Biglow, Unemployment Insurance Fraud, Maryland 2015

Greenbelt, Maryland – Rebecca Lynn Biglow, 42, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a fraud scheme to obtain $71,022 in unemployment insurance benefits.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Bill Jones, of the Washington Regional Office, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations; and Mark Kaufman, Commissioner of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation’s (DLLR) Division of Financial Regulation.

According to the plea agreement, Rebecca Biglow filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims while she was already under court supervision for a previous crime.

On September 9, 2009, Biglow submitted an unemployment insurance benefits claim to DLLR, claiming that she had worked from April 2008 to September 2009 for a home cleaning service company, where she earned wages totaling $23,390. In fact, Biglow was incarcerated from October 2007 to August 2009, and had not worked for the company.

From September 2009 to January 2011, DLLR paid Biglow a total of $17,272 on this claim.

Biglow faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for mail fraud, a mandatory minimum of two years in prison consecutive to any other sentence imposed for aggravated identity theft, and three years in prison for violating her supervised release, less any term of imprisonment imposed upon revocation of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow scheduled sentencing for March 2, 2015.

Biglow agrees to pay forfeiture and restitution of $71,022, the total amount paid by DLLR on the four fraudulent claims.

Biglow was on supervised release during the time she submitted these false claims, after having served time in prison for a previous bank fraud scheme.

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