4th person sentenced in fraud schemes with Bare Hill inmates

4th person sentenced in fraud schemes with Bare Hill inmates

MALONE - A Long Island woman has been sentenced for her role in an unemployment insurance fraud scheme involving Bare Hill inmates.

Briana Garland, 30, of Uniondale, was sentenced on Wednesday to two years of probation for conspiring with a man incarcerated at Bare Hill to obtain unemployment insurance benefits by fraud, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Garland is the fourth and final defendant to be sentenced in related cases stemming from pandemic-related schemes involving inmates at Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, according to the release.

Garland previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, admitting she submitted a false unemployment insurance claim to the state Department of Labor in the name of Reginald Thornton, who was incarcerated at Bare Hill, according to the release.

Thornton previously pleaded guilty to participating in two prison-based unemployment insurance fraud conspiracies and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison, to be served when his state prison term ends, the release said.

Thornton's co-defendants in a related case, Lord Paulin and Rhasha Wright, were previously sentenced to 19 months and 45 months plus one day, in federal prison, respectively.

The release states that inmates are not eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits.

U.S. District Court Judge Glenn T. Suddaby ordered Garland to pay $19,580 in restitution to the state.

The Department of Labor's Office of the Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service worked with the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision and state labor offices of special investigations to investigate these cases.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua R. Rosenthal prosecuted the cases.