A Columbus mother and daughter who once worked inside Ohio’s unemployment system are headed to prison after prosecutors say they quietly funneled nearly $2 million in pandemic jobless benefits to friends and relatives.
Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Kimberly Brown sentenced Velma Cain, 50, and her daughter, Rashanna Burley, 26, last Friday, giving each woman a minimum of about four years and nine months behind bars and ordering them to repay $1,582,251 and $355,382, respectively, according to Cleveland.com. The judge also tacked on additional months tied to related counts, and prosecutors and court records describe the restitution as an effort to get money back to legitimate claimants.
How investigators say they did it
According to investigators with the Ohio Inspector General, Cain and Burley worked as intermittent customer‑service representatives for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and used that access to tamper with unassigned Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims, WKTN reported. Officials say the pair removed holds and blocks they were not authorized to change, clearing the way for payments to people who did not qualify.
The inspector general’s review found that many of the claimants who wound up with benefits were relatives or personal associates of the two women, according to WKTN. In other words, investigators say the help line turned into a pipeline.
Part of a wider enforcement wave
Prosecutors say the case is one chapter in a much larger cleanup effort involving early-pandemic safeguards that proved far too loose. Earlier this month, former contractor Andrew Kerobo and a co-defendant were sentenced in a separate scheme that authorities say diverted about $6.8 million in PUA benefits, as reported by The Columbus Dispatch…