SACRAMENTO – A Long Beach man found guilty of “managing” a fictitious business unemployment scheme that netted $5 million dollars in unemployment insurance benefits is now sentenced to six years in prison.  Andre Antonio Walters, 37, was sentenced on June 15, 2017 and fined $15,000 for four counts of mail fraud.

“California Employment Development Department investigators worked with the U.S. Department of Labor on this case in which a number of  men have now been sentenced to either prison or probation,” said CSLEA President Alan Barcelona.  “It’s deplorable that someone would make up fictitious companies, recruit people to pose as workers who had been laid off, file for benefits and then split the money.”

The men registered fictitious employers with EDD and then found people to pose as employees who had been laid off by those fake companies.  The fake employees would then collect unemployment benefits based on wages reported to EDD by the fictitious employers.  The men then collected a portion of the unemployment benefits from those they recruited to pose as fake laid-off workers.  More than  $5 million in fraudulent benefits were paid out as a result of this scheme.

Others sentenced:

Kenneth Kim Parks, 54, of Pomona, five years in prison

Gregory Bart Martin, 36 of Lakewood, 18 months of probation

Michael Ray Taylor, Sr., 52, of Fontana, three years in prison

Michael Ray Taylor, Jr., 32 of El Monte,15 months in prison