A former state of Illinois subcontractor has been charged with orchestrating a fraud scheme to obtain $4.7 million in unemployment benefits for herself and hundreds of others during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak by fabricating pay records.
Andrea Wellington, 35, is charged with 21 counts of wire fraud, while co-defendant Randall Easley, 38, is accused of 14 charges, according to federal prosecutors in Chicago.
The indictment does not say how Wellington and Easley met before they launched their plot.
According to the indictment issued on October 7, Wellington was employed by the Illinois Department of Employment Security through a subcontractor in July 2021 to serve as a customer service representative, answering calls from people seeking unemployment benefits.
As part of her position, she was granted access to the state’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) system, a federal program that provides unemployment benefits to gig workers and freelancers who do not often qualify for standard benefits. PUA paid up to 79 weeks of unemployment payments to gig workers and freelancers who lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, with the amount determined by their previous year’s salary.
According to the indictment, Wellington was fired on October 7, 2021, and two days later, she and Easley began planning to use the PUA system to misrepresent the income histories of 471 people, including themselves, in order to receive approximately $4.7 million in PUA benefits.
The individuals they recruited as part of the plan paid them thousands of dollars in exchange for fabricating their wage histories, which resulted in each person receiving tens of thousands of dollars in unemployment benefits for which they were not eligible.
Wellington and Easley reportedly fabricated Wellington’s wage history three times between October 9 and October 14, 2021, boosting it from $16,716 to $71,142 and netting her two unemployment checks totaling $13,389, according to the indictment.
They also reportedly faked Easley’s income history from $76 to $69,380 on October 20, 2021, according to the indictment, which did not specify how much he received in unemployment benefits as a result of the fraud.
On October 8, they made their first court appearance and pled not guilty to all counts. They were released on bond. If convicted, each count of wire fraud carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
They are due back in court on October 23.
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