PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced that Jacob Fulton, 33, of Coatesville, PA, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay full restitution by United States District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno for falsely claiming and taking approximately $32,000 in pandemic unemployment compensation authorized by the CARES Act.
On March 27, 2020, the CARES ACT was enacted and created the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (“PUA”) program, to provide unemployment benefits to workers who lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic and who were ineligible for other unemployment compensation. The defendant took advantage of the program by unlawfully submitting fraudulent PUA claims for himself and for inmates of Chester County Prison, knowing that neither he nor these inmates were entitled to these benefits.
In May 2020, the defendant filed a PUA claim for himself knowing that he was not eligible for such benefits because he was not unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. After Fulton was arrested and sent to Chester County Prison in July 2020, he continued to submit weekly certifications that he was eligible for these benefits (with the aid of his co-defendant), all while knowing that he was not eligible for these benefits because he was in prison. At the same time, Fulton conspired to file PUA claims on behalf of at least two other inmates and take a cut of the claim payments for...
When asked to comment on recent claims by the head of Taiwan's regional foreign affairs department that the Taiwan authorities are conducting dialogues and consultations with politicians and socia...