A one-time customer service worker at Jacksonville-based fintech giant FIS faces fraud charges that could put her and four co-defendants behind bars for years over a scam that authorities said pilfered $5.7 million in unemployment payments.
Natasha Hemming was arrested more than a year ago in Houston under an indictment that was initially sealed.
But a new indictment filed Aug. 6 added defendants and extra charges that could make the defendants serve at least four more years in prison if they’re convicted of cheating a system FIS (Fidelity Information Services) used under contracts with state agencies to manage unemployment payouts during the COVID pandemic.
Hemming and a Broward County woman, Tiffany Gonsalves, have pleaded not guilty on all charges and were scheduled Aug. 12 to stand trial in December on nine criminal counts involving conspiracy, access device fraud and aggravated identity theft. The indictment referred to Hemming working “directly for, or on behalf of, FIS,” but wasn’t clear what company’s payroll she was on. There’s no indication where Hemming’s co-defendants worked.
The new indictment says FIS loaded state unemployment payments onto debit cards and kept information about people getting the payments on a database that customer service workers like Hemming could access.
Over about 10 months in 2021, the indictment said, about 900 debit cards loaded with money for unemployed people were “re-issued” to people who were part of the scam, who then took the cards to ATMs to pull out cash more than 6,000 times.
Most of the withdrawals happened in Florida, New York, Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and Maryland, the indictment said.
The indictment included four counts of device fraud that reflected withdrawals totaling $6,000 from four specific debit cards meant for people who didn’t get their money.
Four counts of aggravated identity theft involved scammers using those same unemployed people’s names and Social Security numbers to get the money.
Aggravated identity theft charges matter because anyone convicted of that crime is required to serve two years behind bars for each count, in addition to setebces for any other crimes they’re convicted of. The first indictment only had two of those counts.
Conspiracy can carry a sentence of up to five years and access device fraud is up to 10 years per count, but there’s no mandatory term like with aggravated identity theft.
Besides Hemming and Gonsalves, the Aug. 6 indictment brought identical charges against Joshua Seedharie, who shared an address with Gonsalves; Palm Beach County resident Leon Gonsalves; and Doodnauth Ramlall, who lived in New York’s Queens borough.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Ex-customer service worker at FIS among 5 charged in $5.7M rip-off of unemployment payments
Reporting by Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
