The U.S. Department of Justice says the group put more than 5,000 unemployment insurance claims through the Georgia labor department’s system.
WASHINGTON — Nearly three years after charges were unsealed in a plot to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor for millions of dollars, three more people from Central Georgia have been sentenced to prison.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Macovian Doston, 31, from Vienna, Shatara Hubbard, 36, from Warner Robins, and Torella Wynn, 33, from Cordele, conspired with others to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor of $30 million during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A news release from the department of justice says the group put more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims through the Georgia Department of Labor’s system, resulting in millions in ‘stolen benefits’ from March 2020 through November 2022.
The DOJ contends that Doston, Hubbard, and Wynn, along with co-conspirators, created fake employer accounts. Then, they paid an employee from an Atlanta-area hospital network to get patient information, and used it to create lists of fabricated employees in need of unemployment benefits. Additionally, the justice department says they purchased people’s information on the internet. Once claims were approved, the group had unemployment money loaded to prepaid credit cards and mailed to several different places.
Doston was sentenced to 15 years in prison and three years of supervised release. Hubbard received six years in prison with three years of supervised release. Meanwhile, Wynn will have one year in prison with three years of supervised release. All three will have to pay money back ‘in an amount to be determined at a later date.’
Last year, the department of justice sentenced four others from Central Georgia in connection with the plot. In May 2024, Membrish Brown, 29, from Vienna, got 18 months in prison. Kenya Whitehead, 37, from Cordele, got 28 months in September. A’Darrion Alexander, 29, from Warner Robins, was sentenced to 18 months in October. Finally, Tyshion Nautese Hicks, 32, from Vienna, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
All four co-conspirators will have three years of supervised release once they finish their prison time. The defendant who was paid to steal information was charged by criminal information with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and pleaded guilty to this offense on Nov. 15, 2022. According to her plea agreement, she unlawfully used her employer’s patient databases to steal information for the unemployment fraud scheme in exchange for payments via Chime, Venmo, and CashApp. She unlawfully accessed at least 1,600 Atlanta-area patients’ PII during the conspiracy.
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