Floridian who scammed Oklahomans out of pandemic unemployment funds imprisoned, fined

A Florida man accused of working with others to steal and use the identities of dozens of Oklahomans to fraudulently obtain unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic will spend two years in prison after pleading guilty in Oklahoma City federal court this week to a related charge.

Andrice Vanec Sainvil, 20, of Margate, Florida, also must pay $26,699.80 in restitution to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, forfeit $2,686 in proceeds he admitted to obtaining through the scheme and serve three years of supervised release after completing his time behind bars.

An indictment filed in September 2021 accused Sainvil of conspiring with others to steal Oklahomans' names and Social Security numbers and use that information to apply for fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits being distributed by the commission between March and July in 2021.

Prosecutors say Sainvil and others worked the scheme while unemployment rolls inside of Oklahoma and across the nation remained high as many businesses were closed or had reduced operations because of pandemic conditions.

Reviews of Oklahoma's unemployment insurance and other pandemic-related financial assistance programs have shown they were flooded with fraudulent claims.

Throughout the pandemic, fraudsters, hackers and thieves stole what could easily exceed a half-a-billion state and federal dollars meant to be used as unemployment assistance for Oklahomans. It is believed to be the largest theft of public money in Oklahoma state history.

In Sainvil's case, he and others were able to get prepaid debit cards loaded with the benefits mailed to addresses across the western federal district of Oklahoma. He and others used those cards to withdraw thousands of dollars in cash from ATMs throughout Oklahoma City and elsewhere, prosecutors said.

The fraudulent money Sainvil and the others obtained included additional benefits Oklahomans were entitled to receive that were provided through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, they said.