Arizona man pleads guilty to unemployment insurance fraud
An Arizona man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Las Vegas to possession of more than $200,000 in unemployment benefits from fraudulent claims.
In October, Las Vegas police found Delashaun Dean, 32, of Tolleson, Arizona, with 15 unemployment insurance benefits debit cards — all in different names — on him and in his hotel room, court records show.
The cards were issued by the California Employment Development Department, and none were in Dean’s name. At least $222,930 in unemployment benefits were approved for the claims associated with the recovered cards.
Authorities also found Dean with a fake driver’s license and a spiral notebook containing personal identifying information of multiple people, according to Nevada U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich. Dean used that information to apply for unemployment insurance benefits.
Dean pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of possession of counterfeit and unauthorized access devices. He is set to be sentenced May 11.
The U.S. attorney’s office urges anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 to report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the center’s web complaint form at: https://www.justice.gov/
Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.
