ALBANY, NEW YORK — Melvin Ansong, 27, of Corona, New York, was sentenced today to 39 months in prison and state for mail fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft related to programs where he received more than $190,000 in unemployment benefits supported loans designed to provide relief from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The announcement was made by US Attorney Carla B. Freedman; Jonathan Mellone, Acting Special Agent, New York Region, US Department of Labor, Office of the Inspector General (USDOL-OIG); Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent in Charge, Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Ketty Larco-Ward, inspector-in-charge for the Boston Division of the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
As part of his July 25, 2021 guilty plea, Ansong admitted that he fraudulently received $165,182 in unemployment insurance benefits and an additional $18,480 from the Arizona Department from the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) on behalf of 13 other people had received the economic security on behalf of another person. Ansong further admitted that he fraudulently received an $8,000 loan from the US Small Business Administration (SBA) for economic injury by claiming that he owned a pet grooming business, when in fact it was not such a business gave.
United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also sentenced Ansong to one year of supervised release to begin after his sentence and ordered him to pay $165,182 to New York State and $18,480 in damages paid to the State of Arizona and $8,000 to the SBA.
The case was investigated by USDOL-OIG, USPIS and HSI with assistance from the New York Branch of US Customs and Border Protection and the NYSDOL Office of Special Investigations. The case was being prosecuted by Assistant US Attorneys Alexander P. Wentworth-Ping and Joshua R. Rosenthal.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to pool the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to increase efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force is increasing efforts to identify and prosecute the most guilty domestic and international criminal actors and assisting agencies tasked with administering fraud prevention assistance programs, including by expanding and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques for detecting fraudulent actors and their systems, and sharing and utilizing information and lessons learned from previous enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.
Anyone with information about suspected fraud related to COVID-19 may report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 866-720-5721 or through the NCDF web complaint form at : https://www .justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.
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