September 10, 2025, Press Release from the Ohio Inspector General:
COLUMBUS, Ohio – On September 9th, the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury returned an indictment against Francesca Figueroa-Rivera and Claudine Stavole for various criminal offenses related to fraudulent claims involving the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. These counts include Engaging in a Pattern of Corrupt Activity, Conspiracy, Theft, Telecommunications Fraud, Tampering with Government Records, Bribery, and Theft in Office. The indictment is the result of a collaborative investigation between the Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General, Ohio State Highway Patrol, United States Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).
In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased unemployment of millions of Americans, Congress passed various programs to address the crisis, including the PUA program. The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility unemployment requirements for recipients. Consequently, ODJFS, the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, received an unprecedented number of unemployment compensation claims. This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire intermittent and temporary contracted workers to process the claims. In fiscal year 2021, ODJFS disbursed approximately $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits and later, ODJFS identified millions of dollars of the disbursals as fraudulent…