2 Pontiac men charged with fraudulently claiming $4 million in unemployment benefits [Detroit Free Press]

Two Pontiac men have been charged with fraudulently claiming $4 million in unemployment benefits from Michigan and others states, federal authorities said Wednesday.

Separately, a Detroit man pleaded guilty Wednesday to wire fraud and identity theft in a scheme to defraud nine states, including Michigan, out of more than $1.6 million in unemployment insurance benefits.

Jermaine Arnett, 34, and Terrance Calhoun Jr., 32, both of Pontiac, filed more than 500 jobless claims using a handful of IP and mailing addresses, the criminal complaint said. Those unemployment insurance funds were then loaded onto debit cards, resulting in $1.7 million in purchases and cash withdrawals over the course of nearly three months, according to the complaint, announced by the acting U.S. attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in a news release.

Jordan Armstrong, 29, meanwhile, entered his guilty plea Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts. As a part of his guilty plea, he must pay $1.6 million in restitution to the states he stole unemployment insurance funds from. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charge, and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years imprisonment for the identity theft charge.

Armstrong will be sentenced on March 22.

Nearly 40 people have now been indicted for stealing unemployment insurance funds during the pandemic. Brandi Hawkins, a former contract employee for the state's Unemployment Insurance Agency, was the first person to be sentenced, and faces nearly five years in federal prison.

The complaint and plea come when as many as 10,000 claimants are still without benefits as the agency continues to work through a backlog of claims filed in the pandemic.

More: Ex-Michigan contractor sentenced to federal prison in unemployment insurance fraud scheme

More: Julia Dale named new director of Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency by Gov. Whitmer

A Deloitte report released nearly a year ago found that hundreds of millions of dollars was likely distributed to criminals.

Contact Adrienne Roberts: [email protected].

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