Sacramento Man Pleads Guilty in $575K COVID Unemployment Fraud Scheme
Prosecutors said the defendant submitted at least 79 fake applications, leading to EDD issuing debit cards loaded with unemployment benefits.
A Sacramento man pleaded guilty Monday to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme to defraud California’s unemployment insurance program during the COVID-19 pandemic, federal prosecutors said.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California, Roosevelt Gulley III, 41, admitted to collecting personally identifiable information — including names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers — to file fraudulent unemployment insurance claims with the California Employment Development Department (EDD) between July and September 2020.
Prosecutors said Gulley submitted at least 79 fake applications, leading to EDD issuing debit cards loaded with unemployment benefits. The cards were mailed to addresses Gulley listed, and he then withdrew cash from them at various ATMs.
The government alleges the scheme caused more than $575,000 in actual losses and involved an intended loss of over $1.5 million.
“Roosevelt Gulley collected the personally identifiable information of individuals without their knowledge to fraudulently collect unemployment insurance benefits intended for American workers who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Quentin Heiden, special agent in charge of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General for the Western Region said. He credited the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force for pursuing the case.
The investigation was conducted by the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General and the California EDD’s Investigation Division, with help from the U.S. Secret Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Denise N. Yasinow is prosecuting the case.
Gulley is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 26, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd. He faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and a mandatory consecutive two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.
