ALBANY – A partnership with the Bronx District Attorney and New York City Department of Investigation has stopped unemployment insurance thieves at Riker’s Island in New York City.  Fourteen individuals, including inmates and their accomplices, were charged with unemployment insurance fraud.  With today’s arrests, New York City joins the statewide initiative created by Governor Cuomo in 2011 that has caught 3,690 inmates since 2011.  

Tuesday’s arrests followed an investigation that found that inmates at Riker’s Island, working with individuals outside the jail, filed false weekly unemployment claims while they were incarcerated. The amounts stolen ranged from $5,436 to $24,300. The total identified by the New York State Department of Labor and referred to the Bronx District Attorney for investigation exceeded $160,000.  Additional suspects remain under investigation.

The investigation began in late 2011 when the New York City Department of Correction made prison records available to the State Department of Labor's Office of Special Investigations for review.  The records revealed evidence of fraud that involved inmates and accomplices outside the jail.  Investigators found that inmates enlisted people outside the jail to file and collect the benefits fraudulently on their behalf.  

Defendants were charged with Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, a class D felony and face up to seven years in state prison if convicted.  A list of those arrested appears below.

“This serves as a real warning to anyone who might be considering defrauding our system – we have the best and the brightest working to ensure anyone who commits unemployment insurance fraud will be caught,” said Labor Commissioner Peter M. Rivera.  “I want to thank all who played a role in this investigation and in continuing to put a stop to these abuses.”

Anyone with information about unemployment insurance fraud should call the Department of Labor's toll-free fraud hotline at (888) 598-2077.

Arrested:

• Terrell Fulton, 38 , Bronx, New York
• Latesha Brown, 40
• Kelly Rolon, 39 , Bronx, New York
• Charles Pressley, 34 , Bronx, New York
• Nancy Loncke, 29 , Brooklyn, New York
• Nancy Kearse, 50 , New York, New York
• Rashid Hawkins, 23 , Brooklyn, New York
• Nathan Blake, 51 , Brooklyn, New York
• Jean Baptiste Lessage, 31 , Bronx, New York
• Jose Andujar, 49 , Brooklyn, New York
• Tasha Horton, 43 , Brooklyn, New York
• Brittany Jackson, 24 , New York, New York
• Derek Collado, 32 , State Department of Corrections
• Tawana Anthony, 33 , State Department of Corrections