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In what may be the largest fraud scheme in California history, thousands of inmates collected as much as $1 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits, while Megan Markel reveals miscarriage and more of today’s trending news.
Thousands of inmates in California jails and prisons, including convicted serial killers, pull off what is being described as potentially the largest fraud scheme in the history of the state, NBC reported. Some of the recipients included infamous death row multiple murderers such as Scott Peterson, Cary Stayner, and Susan Eubanks
Inmates fraudulently filed for pandemic employment benefits, which could total as high as $1 billion, said Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.
“The fraud is honestly staggering,” Schubert said. She added that the benefits, in some cases, included fake names and Social Security numbers, and sometimes as obvious as John Doe, John Adams, and in one case, “Poopy britches.”
Between March and August, according to Schubert, inmates in every jail and prison across California filed 35,000 unemployment claims that totaled $140 million in benefits.
In many cases, the money was sent to relatives and/or friends outside the prisons and jails, but sometimes the benefits were paid directly to inmates inside the facilities, Schubert said.
The scheme came to light in September, after numerous money orders arrived that were destined for inmates, said Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer.
Megan Markel, 39, the Duchess of Sussex, has revealed that she suffered a miscarriage in July. Megan said in an op-ed for the New York Times, “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
In the article, Markel urged everyone to “commit to asking others ‘are you okay?'” over the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, BBC reported.
