Six current, former U.S. Postal employees accused of collecting fraudulent unemployment benefits, business loans

CHICAGO (CBS) — 6 current and previous U.S. Postal Provider personnel have been billed with fraudulently acquiring financial loans for enterprises that did not seriously exist.

The 6 defendants ended up charged as portion of an investigation by the Illinois Attorney General’s Taskforce on Unemployment Positive aspects Insurance policies Fraud. They all utilized for a wide range of governing administration financial loans and support for the duration of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, in accordance to the Lawyer General’s office environment.

In addition to striving to get financial loans from the Little Small business Administration for firms that ended up not authentic, four of the defendants are accused of submitting for fraudulent unemployment added benefits though they ended up genuinely working for the Postal Company all along.

The defendants are:

• Davonte Kendall, 30, of Lansing
• Bria Taylor, 27, of Berwyn
• Imani Butler, 29, of Dixmoor
• Raven Daniel, 28, of Bellwood
• Louis K. Lay, Jr., 32, of Chicago
• Erica M. Beck, 34, of Chicago.

Concerning them, the six defendants are billed with a lot more than 65 felony counts – which include theft by deception, state rewards fraud, mortgage fraud, wire fraud, and forgery.

Lay and Beck – who are married to each individual other and the two still get the job done for the Postal Service – are also billed with scheming to steal $25,000 in financial effects payments from residents in the South Shore community.

The Lawyer General’s place of work commenced investigating when the Postal Service’s Business office of the Inspector Standard noted that some workers were being collecting unemployment while doing the job and receiving compensated by the Postal Company. A joint federal and state investigation adopted.