Five Monterey County Jail inmates charged with unemployment fraud
SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Seven Monterey County residents, five of them inmates at the Monterey County Jail, are facing unemployment insurance fraud charges as part of an investigation by the Monterey County District Attorney's Office.
The DA's Office said the five inmates are Tony Nguyen Tran, Lanh Van Truong, Juan Castillo Lopez, Zachary Don Dobbs and Lenny Westley Sanks. The two people who were not inmates are Reynaldo Garcia Gomez and Nicole Ramona Sanks.
All of them are charged with felony counts of conspiracy, making fraudulent statements in unemployment insurance applications and money laundering. Two of the people charged have prior serious or violent strike allegations and one of them, Lenny Sanks, is awaiting trial for murder.
The DA's Office said it believes the total amount of fraud in the case is more than $40,000, and they expect more arrests and charges in the future.
Emergency unemployment benefits became available through the California Employment Development Department to help people struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the DA's Office said the agency did not use many standard practices for vetting applications.
As a result, the EDD reported that it likely paid more than $10 billion in fraudulent benefits between March and December 2020. In July, the DA's Office said the Monterey County Sheriff's Office and Salinas Police Department learned that inmates at the Monterey County Jail may have been involved in the fraud by applying for and receiving unemployment benefits during times that they were in custody. Inmates are not eligible for unemployment assistance because they are not considered available to work.
Read more about actions taken after reports of fraud.
The DA's Office and Sheriff's Office have formed a task force along with Monterey Police, Marina Police and CSUMB Police to investigate the fraud with help from state and federal investigators.
