David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that JULIE HYMANS, 41, of Bridgeport, was sentenced today by Chief United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson in Hartford to 90 days of imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release, for engaging in a scheme to obtain unemployment benefits to which she was not entitled.  HYMANS also was ordered to pay a $250 fine.

According to court documents and statements made in court, the Federal and State Unemployment Insurance System, which is designed to provide benefits to persons who are out of work due to no fault of their own, is administered for the federal government by state employment offices.  The U.S. Department of Labor oversees the Unemployment Insurance System and the federal government funds all administrative costs, including salaries and office expenses for the employment offices.  Benefits paid to unemployed workers from the private sector are financed by taxes on employers in the State of Connecticut by the State’s Department of Labor.

From January 1995 to April 2009, HYMANS’s father, Monroe Ralph Hymans, who formerly resided in Westport, designed and implemented a scheme to defraud the Connecticut Department of Labor by collecting unemployment benefits to which he was not entitled.   During this time period, Monroe Ralph Hymans created various fictitious companies and then applied for unemployment benefits, claiming that he and other members of his family, including JULIE HYMANS, had been laid off from those companies.  Monroe Ralph Hymans used a portion of the fraudulently obtained unemployment benefits to provide financial support to JULIE HYMANS.

In December 2008, JULIE HYMANS learned that the Connecticut Department of Labor had discontinued unemployment benefits that her father had fraudulently obtained in her name.   In January and March 2009, she contacted the Connecticut Department of Labor and falsely stated that she was eligible for the reinstatement of her unemployment benefits because she had been laid off from Monroe Management, a fictitious company created by her father.  In support of her claim, HYMANS caused a fraudulent 2007 W-2 to be faxed to the Connecticut Department of Labor, which falsely stated that she had previously worked for another fictitious company created by her father.

On October 4, 2011, JULIE HYMANS pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.

On March 24, 2011, Monroe Ralph Hymans pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud and admitted that, as a result of his fraudulent conduct, the Department of Labor was defrauded out of approximately $312,804.  He died while awaiting sentencing.

This case was investigated by the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General and the United States Postal Inspection Service.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Christopher Mattei and Paul McConnell.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS CONTACT:

U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
Tom Carson
(203) 821-3722
thomas.carson@usdoj.gov

 

 

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