ABINGDON, Va. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Virginia woman who plotted to defraud the government out of more than $1.5 million in pandemic-related unemployment benefits has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution.
A Justice Department news release says 31-year-old Farren Gaddis Ricketts of Jonesville and her co-conspirators devised a scheme to collect personal identification information and then submit unemployment claims to the Virginia Employment Commission website for individuals who were ineligible to receive pandemic unemployment benefits, including inmates in state prisons.
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