Mother and Daughter Team Charged in COVID-19 Related, Jailhouse Unemployment Insurance Fraud

FRESNO, Calif. — An indictment was unsealed today charging Makiah Miles, 29, of Compton, and Apryl Weston, 50, of Santa Maria, with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and identity theft for submitting fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to the California Employment Development Department (EDD) in the names of inmates, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Miles is an inmate at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and Weston is her mother. From June through December 2020, they took advantage of changes made to the EDD’s eligibility criteria in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and submitted the fraudulent claims. Specifically, Miles obtained other inmates’ names, dates of birth, and social security numbers and sent that information to Weston to submit claims in those inmates’ identities as well as her own identity. The underlying applications contained several misrepresentations, including that Miles and the other inmates had been self-employed as accountants, beauty culturists, child care providers, cosmetologists, hairdressers, and other occupations, and that they recently became unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The claims were worth over $550,000. The defendants used the money to purchase handbags, jewelry, and televisions, among other items.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Investigative Services Unit, and the EDD. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Barton is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, the defendants face a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge and a mandatory, two-year consecutive sentence and additional $250,000 for the aggravated identity theft charges. Any sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.