SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A former Sacramento resident was sentenced to four years and 10 months in prison for cashing out more than $1.1 million in fake unemployment claims.
The U.S. Attorney's Office said from April through October 2020 Terence Aubrey Larker stole 80 identities to file fraudulent claims, thus receiving prepaid debit cards — 24 of which were mailed directly to his home address in Sacramento.
He was seen on surveillance footage taking out large amounts of cash from ATMs with the debit cards sent by California's Employment Development Department (EDD).
“Terence A. Larker used stolen identities to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to obtain over $1 million in benefits allocated for workers who lost their jobs as a result of the global pandemic. This sentence demonstrates the Office of Inspector General’s continued commitment to safeguard the Unemployment Insurance system,” Quentin Heiden, Special Agent-in-Charge, Western Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, said in a statement.
