Warren woman admits to her role in $2.2 million unemployment fraud scheme

A Warren woman has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for her secondary role in a $2.2 million fraud scheme mostly involving unemployment dollars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brittany Levett Witherspoon, 26, of Warren, last month entered the plea in U.S. District Court and will be sentenced May 1 by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland in Port Huron, according to her plea deal revealed in court documents.

The maximum sentence is 20 years in prison; her sentencing-guideline range had not been determined at the time of the plea last month. She will also be ordered to pay $31,000 in restitution: $23,700 to the state of Michgian and $7,300 to the state of Louisana, court records say.

Her plea came a month before the scheme's ringleader, Chaz Duane Shields, 35, of Detroit, was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison and ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution to the states of California, Michigan, Nevada, and Louisiana, the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Postal Service, according to federal officials. Shields in August pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.

Officials said Shields has an "extensive history of fraud and deceit." He has six state fraud convictions – five in Michigan and one in Maryland – since 2016.

Co-conspirators Cortney Shaquan Shields, 31, and Daeshawn Tamar Posey, 27, both of Detroit, were previously sentenced to 41 months and 63 months in prison, respectively.

"We remain committed to working with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute thefts from a multitude of federal programs, especially those aimed at pandemic relief," U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison, who oversees the Eastern District of Michigan.

"Shields and his co-conspirators submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance claims that siphoned off more than $2 million intended to assist individuals who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic," said James Tarasca, head of the FBI's Detroit office.

Shields and his co-conspirators agreed to submit more than 240 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to over 20 states to fraudulently obtain more than $2.2 million in unemployment insurance benefits beginning as early as May 2020 and continuing through at least July 2021, according to court records, officials said. Shields also successfully obtained a fraudulent $20,833 Paycheck Protection Program loan.

Separately, Shields defrauded the Postal Service of over $200,000 through a scheme in which he conspired to submit more than 1,000 fraudulent Domestic Indemnity Insurance claims, in the names of more than 40 separate individuals. Shields and others used USPS self-service kiosks to mail a number of packages. For each package, the conspirators subsequently filed a fraudulent insurance claim by attesting the package contained an item of significant value. In reality, the packages typically contained empty plastic picture frames with little to no value.

The USPS mailed a check for each successful claim, and each was cashed.