FLORENCE, S.C. (WMBF) – A Florence couple has pleaded guilty to a scheme where they took money meant for those who were struggling to make ends meet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A change of plea hearing was held on Thursday afternoon for Mohammad Farraj and Nariman Masoud at the federal courthouse in Florence. Other family members from Florida and New York also pleaded guilty for their roles in the nationwide unemployment fraud conspiracy.
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The two signed a plea agreement last Friday where they both pleaded guilty to count one of the superseding indictment, where the two admitted to devising a scheme to defraud and obtain under false pretenses through wire fraud.
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.
“These Defendants callously took advantage of an unprecedented and nationwide pandemic-borne employment crisis,” said U.S. Attorney Adair F. Boroughs. “They stole money specifically intended for out-of-work Americans trying to make ends meet, and they used that money to enrich themselves. This Office will not tolerate those who seek to get rich off the backs of hardworking taxpayers, and I commend the excellent work of the FBI in bringing this fraud ring to justice.”
The plea agreements show the penalty for the offense is a maximum of 20 years, a fine of $250,000 and supervised release of three years or less.
The judge will sentence the defendants after receiving and reviewing sentencing reports prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.
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