FLORENCE, S.C. (WMBF) – A Florence couple who pleaded guilty to their involvement in a COVID-19 fraud scheme will learn their punishment later this month.

Online records show a sentencing hearing is scheduled for Mohammad Farraj and Nariman Masoud on April 25 at the federal courthouse in Florence.

The two pleaded guilty in December to devising a scheme to defraud and obtain under false pretenses through wire fraud.

RELATED COVERAGE:

• ‘Heinous form of fraud’: Florence couple accused in COVID-19 pandemic fraud scheme
• Florence couple, other family members plead guilty in COVID-19 fraud scheme

The investigation revealed that from January 2020 to February 2022, the defendants engaged in a wire fraud conspiracy to file and receive fraudulent claims for unemployment insurance and expanded pandemic unemployment insurance benefits from New York, Florida and South Carolina.

The defendants would submit false unemployment claims using other people’s personal information, then they would have funds loaded onto prepaid debit cards issued in the names of the third parties, then they would use the cards to withdraw money.

Farraj and Masoud’s role was to obtain people’s personal information, create fraudulent unemployment insurance applications, recruit others into the scheme, withdraw money from accounts and place the money into their bank accounts and cryptocurrency accounts.

The couple and their family members took close to $450,000, according to the district attorney’s office.

The...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmxpdmU1bmV3cy5jb20v...