2 more plead guilty in alleged unemployment benefits scheme

By Aida Ahmed

Friday, Nov. 4, 2011 | 3:12 p.m.

The U.S. Attorney’s office announced two more defendants entered guilty pleas this week in a case involving the use of undocumented persons to help obtain more than $4.4 million in unemployment benefits from the State of Nevada and federal government.

Eloy Garcis, 33, of Las Vegas entered a guilty plea Thursday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, money laundering and making a false declaration in relation to a bankruptcy proceeding.

Efrain Garcia, 41, of Las Vegas also entered guilty pleas on Wednesday to charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering.

They are scheduled to be sentenced at 10 a.m. Jan. 31.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, both defendants agreed to forfeit $4.4 million in cash and a house, all of which were proceeds from criminal activity.

According to the plea agreement, four codefendants fraudulently submitted at least 591 unemployment claims to the state from November 2007 to September 2009. As a result, the state paid unemployment insurance benefits, emergency unemployment compensation benefits, federal additional compensation benefits and state extended benefits, which exceeded $4.4 million, authorities said.

The defendants were accused of committing the fraud by recruiting people illegally in the United States to apply for unemployment benefits and obtained their personal identifying information and work history, officials said.

From there, the defendants submitted fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits through the state’s telephone hotline number and website, officials said. They produced false notarized affidavits of identity, if the state had questions about the person’s identify, officials said.

The defendants either told the undocumented immigrants that their claims were not accepted or gave them a portion of the benefits before telling them the claims were no longer being paid, officials said. Meanwhile, the defendants continued accepting the payments, officials said.

Another defendant, Francisco Garcia, 41, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, money laundering and false representation of a social security number.

He is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 3 and faces up to 35 years in prison and $750,000 in fines, authorities said.