Bruce Jin, 61, of Los Angeles, had pleaded guilty in the case in January 2025, admitting that he and other co-conspirators “conspired to obtain state unemployment compensation funds, and other public funds, through fraudulent means,” the DOJ said in a May 1 statement.

Jin and two co-conspirators “entered into a series of agreements to make it appear as if they were operating legitimate businesses selling masks and other COVID19 personal protective equipment,” the DOJ said.

“The funds that the defendants obtained and laundered through their companies were derived from fraudulently obtained state unemployment compensation (‘UC’) benefits. The indictment alleges that Economic Impact Payments, or ‘stimulus payments,’ were also obtained through fraudulent means.”

Economic Impact Payments were offered by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide financial relief to Americans.

Some unnamed members of the scheme, including a few believed to be from China, set up thousands of accounts at banks in the United States, using the personal information of identity theft victims. The unemployment compensation funds were then routed to these accounts.

Once the funds were credited, they were transferred to companies controlled by Jin and the co-conspirators.

When Jin received the funds, he made international wire transfers to a bank account linked to a company in China, totaling more than $35 million. An additional $2 million was transferred by Jin directly into the bank account of a Chinese person who controlled the company.

In addition to the 144-month prison term, Jin was ordered to forfeit more than $59 million in U.S. currency and other property. Two co-conspirators in the case, both from Los Angeles, have pleaded guilty and are set to be sentenced this month.

Unemployment compensation is paid by a state to workers who lost their jobs due to layoffs or other circumstances, such as business downsizing. The compensation is intended to provide these workers with a source of income until they can find work.

On April 21, the DOJ announced that, in another case of unemployment compensation fraud, a Pennsylvania resident was indicted by a federal grand jury.

The defendant in the case worked at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. While working at the department, the defendant allegedly accepted unauthorized payments from people who filed for unemployment compensation. The payments were made to the defendant to expedite and secure certain benefits for the applicants.

According to the DOJ, the defendant’s actions resulted in $528,449 in unemployment compensation benefits being paid to claimants who were not entitled to them.

“This investigation and the resulting Indictment send a clear message that government employees who steal and misuse public funds will be brought to justice,” U.S. attorney Troy Rivetti said.

“Our office and our law enforcement partners are committed to rooting out fraud and safeguarding the public treasury.”

In an October 2025 update, the IRS warned Americans that some states were experiencing a surge in fraudulent unemployment claims being filed by organized crime groups using stolen identities.

People who receive mail from a government agency about an unemployment claim or payment that they did not file for may be a victim of such an identity theft scam, the IRS said.

The agency warned that fraudsters were creating websites mimicking legitimate unemployment benefit sites, including those of the state workforce agency (SWA), to dupe people and steal their personal information.

“To lure consumers to these fake websites, fraudsters send spam text messages and emails purporting to be from an SWA and containing a link,” the IRS said.

“The fake websites are designed to trick consumers into thinking they are applying for unemployment benefits and disclosing personally identifiable information and other sensitive data. That information can then be used by fraudsters to commit identity theft.”

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State Attorney General Rob Bonta said officials have charged 21 and have so far arrested 5 people involved as the Trump administration accused California of not doing enough to crack down on fraud.

Federal officials have launched a nationwide effort to target improper spending in federal benefit programs, arresting eight people last week they said were involved in various health care fraud schemes in and around Los Angeles.

“This isn’t a political game for us. This is about protecting taxpayer dollars, protecting the programs that sick and vulnerable Californians rely on, and protecting our state,” Bonta said in a news release.

After the Department of Health Care Services notified state prosecutors of potential fraud, investigators discovered a scheme in which individuals bought personal information for non-California residents from the dark web and enrolled them in Medi-Cal, the state’s equivalent of Medicaid, Bonta’s office said. The program provides free or low-cost health insurance to low-income individuals and families.

Then, those individuals bought 14 hospice companies and began billing for hospice services for the stolen identities. They billed a total of about $267 million, Bonta’s office said.

The individuals are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, and identity theft with aggravated white collar crime and money laundering enhancements.

“For years, California has led the charge to protect public programs from fraud and abuse,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in the news release. “We hold accountable to the fullest extent of the law anyone who tries to rip off taxpayers and take advantage of public programs, particularly those as sensitive as hospice care.

Under Bonta, the state has filed 119 hospice-related criminal cases and secured 51 convictions, his office said.

The Trump administration has made California a focus of its national anti-fraud efforts and zeroed in on Medicare hospice fraud in the Los Angeles area. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to create an anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance. Most of the efforts have focused on states run by Democrats, though Republican-led Florida was among those asked to share more information on how they identify, prevent and address Medicaid fraud.

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The text arrived midday, saying a delivery to me was on hold. To fix the problem, all I had to do was click on a web link and enter my ZIP Code.

“Have a great day from the USPS team!” the text said.

The awkwardly worded message (with bad punctuation and an international phone number) was clearly not from the Postal Service. And if I can hazard a wild guess, I don’t think the senders really wanted me to have a great day.

They wanted to rip me off and, so, a word to the wise this holiday season:

Watch your wallet.

Fraud is a year-round, multibillion-dollar international enterprise. But for thieves, the season of joy is a wide-open window of opportunity, as AARP warned Nov. 18:

“With scammers looking to take advantage of consumers from all angles, new AARP survey research reveals that people need to be vigilant this holiday season as they buy gifts, book their travel arrangements, and donate to charities.”

Many of the scams are run by sophisticated international syndicates, said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at AARP’s Fraud Watch Network. Those crooks are working every channel, fishing for victims by email, phone calls, texts, fliers and regular mail.

Unwitting people are forking over money via gift cards, cryptocurrency, credit cards, cash and wire transfers. Losses often are virtually impossible to recover because the money is on foreign soil before the victims know they’ve been robbed.

Stokes said that in one common ripoff, thieves are going after people who own timeshares they’re trying to dump.

“There’s all this paperwork that makes it look legitimate, like you’re paying to get out of the timeshare,” Stokes said. But the crooks are pocketing thousands of dollars while the target is still stuck with the timeshare.

Last week, in a national conference on scams targeting older adults, Deborah Royster of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned that consumers are being wiped out in a flash.

“Retirement savings and other resources that people have earned over a lifetime, and depend on,” Royster said, “can be gone in an instant.”

In that same conference, Virginia lawyer Julie M. Strandlie said her 85-year-old mother lost $80,000 between Thanksgiving and Christmas five years ago in a common scam that began with “flashing graphics and pounding voices” on her computer screen, warning of a virus.

“There’s a number to call for help, but it’s not the real Microsoft,” Strandlie said.

Her mother fell for the ruse, giving the criminals remote access to unlock her frozen computer. She was then duped into believing they had deposited money into her account, and she needed to pay it back in cash and gift cards from Best Buy and Target.

Steve McFarland, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau region that runs from Palo Alto to Long Beach, said his office is getting 1,100 consumer complaints of all types each and every day.

He wasn’t kidding and repeated the number.

McFarland and other sources say a greater percentage of millennials report fraud than do older adults, but the latter group suffers greater losses. And across the age spectrum, McFarland said, gift card scams are hot right now.

Bar codes on those cards can be tampered with or photographed by someone before they’re sold, McFarland said. The buyer of the card goes to a checkout stand and puts, let’s say, $100 on the card to be redeemed at Target, Burger King or any number of establishments.

But when the recipient goes to redeem it, the funds are gone. It happened last year to L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, who bought a $100 VISA gift card for a nephew who found that it wasn’t worth a nickel. Hahn later warned of the scam, along with McFarland, on L.A.’s Eyewitness News.

“It’s called gift card draining and these scammers have found several slick ways to victimize unsuspecting shoppers,” Hahn said.

In addition to outright scams, this is a time of year when solicitations for charitable donations can fill your mailbox.

“A lot of charities are trying to close out strong, and criminals know that and are vying for the same dollars,” Stokes said.

If it’s not an established organization that’s known for its good work, Stokes advised going to the Better Business Bureau’s give.org website, where you can type in the name of the charity to find out whether it’s legit. You can also find out what percentage of donations go to the cause versus overhead costs.

Your best policy, unfortunately, is to be suspicious of everything. I recently got a letter with my mortgage lender’s name in the window and opened it to find a warning that this was my “FINAL NOTICE” to avoid a monthly payment increase.

It looked hinky, and on the back page, in fine print, I learned that the mail was from a lender unaffiliated with my mortgage company.

If you see “final notice,” “urgent” or “benefit disbursement enclosed,” don’t even bother opening the envelope.

A friend shared a tall stack of mail that keeps coming for his mother, who died months ago, and as I sifted through it I found one attempt after another to separate her from her money. “Copy of Final Check Enclosed,” said one, and in the cellophane window was what looked like a check for $437.18 that said “Pay to the order of …”

But it wasn’t a check, of course. It was a solicitation from a lobbying firm claiming it will fight to preserve Social Security funding (and by the way, she had a lot of mail from organizations claiming they were out to do the same).

The fake check was described as an example of what she stood to lose if she didn’t immediately support the cause by pulling out her credit card and making an “urgent donation” to keep Social Security solvent.

And then there were solicitations from organizations representing a Noah’s Ark of endangered animals. Look, I’m an animal lover, but how does one begin to sort through all the pleas?

Save the pigs. The horses. The bees. The lions. The donkeys.

“Sunday, a baby donkey was ripped from his mother and brutalized,” said one envelope.

Lots of appeals for dogs, too. One included the photo of a dog with amazing verbal skills, judging by the quote attributed to the canine: “I wish for no one else to be hurt the way humans have hurt me.”

I feel for the dog, but if he can actually speak, let’s get him an agent and send him out on tour so the pup can raise a fortune for his cause.

Of course, there are plenty of good charities out there that are worthy of your generosity, but be careful.

With solicitations. With email. With texts. With phone calls.

All of it.

Banks should be doing more to prevent repeated, questionable, out-of-the-ordinary withdrawals and wire transfers. The gift card industry ought to be able to rein in rampant fraud with smarter security measures.

And people of all ages need to be more discerning, refuse to provide personal information such as Social Security numbers, and get some advice from a trusted friend or loved one before signing any checks or doing business with strangers.

Last year I wrote about two retired L.A. residents, a former teacher and a former banker, who were swindled out of roughly $80,000 apiece in internet scams. Earlier this year I wrote about a Redwood City woman who was taken for $1.8 million, and an Alhambra woman, Alice Lin, who lost $720,000 in an “investment” scheme introduced to her by a man she met on a chat app.

I reached out to Lin, who had some good advice on all forms of communication from sources you don’t know or trust.

“Do not respond,” Lin said. “Don’t touch it.”

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MURRIETA, CA — A convicted felon accused of trying to arrange a sexual encounter with an underage girl — who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer involved in an online predator sting — was charged Thursday with multiple misdemeanor and felony offenses.

Laith Fathi Sikta, 44, of Sacramento was arrested Saturday following a monthlong law enforcement operation that included Riverside County sheriff’s deputies from the Southwest Station in French Valley.

Sikta is charged with two counts each of distributing harmful material to a minor and identity theft, as well as one count each of contacting a minor with intent to perpetrate a sexual offense, arranging a meeting with a minor for illicit purposes, possession of child pornography, attempting to furnish marijuana to a child under 14 years old and possession of controlled substances.

Sikta, who is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail at the Byrd Detention Center, was slated to make his initial court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Joe Narciso, the investigation into Sikta’s online activity began toward the end of July when the internet predator sting was initiated.

“Sikta communicated his intent to have sex and arranged to meet for sex someone whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, but was actually an online undercover officer,” Narciso said.

He alleged that on Friday, the defendant drove from his Sacramento residence to Murrieta “with the plan to pick up the minor in the middle of the night.”

He was instead confronted by deputies, who took him into custody without incident on Winchester Road.

“Cannabis was located in Sikta’s vehicle,” the sheriff’s spokesman said.

According to court records, the defendant has a prior conviction for robbery.

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The Santa Barbara County, Calif., Sheriff’s Office said it arrested two suspects this month after they were tracked down using an Apple AirTag that the victim mailed to herself in hopes of catching the thieves who kept stealing her mail.

Deputies said they responded to a call on the morning of Aug. 19 for a report of a mail theft that had just taken place at the Los Alamos, Calif., Post Office, according to the release.

When they arrived, deputies discovered that the woman — who was not identified by authorities — had recently had mail stolen from her post office box, the sheriff’s office said.

So, to take matters into her own hands, she mailed herself a package with an AirTag inside it.

Once her mail was stolen again that morning, with the AirTag included in the package, she quickly contacted the police, the department said.

Authorities were able to track the AirTag and the suspects in Santa Maria, Calif. Officials said they found the woman’s mail — including the package containing the AirTag — in addition to other items that police believe were stolen from more than a dozen victims.

Deputies located and arrested Virginia Franchessca Lara, 27, and Donald Ashton Terry, 37, in connection with the crime, the department said. Lara was booked on several felonies — including possession of checks with intent to commit fraud, fictitious checks, identity theft, credit card theft, and conspiracy, the department said.

Jail records show she was held on a $50,000 bond.

Terry was booked and faces charges related to burglary, possession of checks with intent to commit fraud, credit card theft, identity theft, and conspiracy. The department said he was also booked on several theft-related warrants from Riverside County, Calif.

Terry was being held on a $460,000 bond, according to jail records.

Attorneys representing the two suspects did not respond to NPR’s immediate request for comment regarding their arrests.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office thanked the victim for taking a “proactive approach” to locating her stolen mail and for not attempting to confront the suspects herself. The case, according to authorities, remains under investigation as they continue to identify other victims.

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Palm Desert Station Burglary Suppression Unit (BSU) conducted further investigation regarding two commercial burglaries that occurred on November 06, 2021, at a local resort in Rancho Mirage. BSU identified Ramiro Talavera, 30 of Cathedral City, as the suspect in these burglaries. On December 17, 2021, BSU members located and arrested Talavera in the 69000 block of Highway 111, Rancho Mirage for the two commercial burglaries and several counts of identity theft. During his arrest, Talavera was in possession of the victim’s stolen property. Talavera was transported and booked at the John Benoit Detention Center, in the city of Indio.

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department is asking anyone with additional information to contact Deputy Patrick Montalvo at (760) 836-1600 or call anonymously at (760) 341-STOP (7867) and reference incident #’s:S213110020, S213120017.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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A few weeks ago, a Moreno Valley resident submitted an anonymous Crime Tip through the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department web page. The resident reported a unique looking vehicle seen throughout the city stealing mail and packages left on porches. The Moreno Valley Station’s Robbery/Burglary Suppression Team (RBST) assumed the investigation and followed-up on the lead.

After an extensive investigation, RBST members were led to a 39-year-old Moreno Valley resident by the name of Jason Kelly, who lives on the 24500 block of Jasmine Court. Jason Kelly is also on Post Release Community Supervision (Probation).

On June 15th, RBST members arrested Kelly and searched his residence. RBST located several items inside his residence indicating an illicit credit card fraud and identify theft laboratory, to include, machines used to facilitate credit/debit card fraud, computer equipment used to commit identity theft, several documents containing identifying information for potential unknowing victims of identity theft, burglary tools, washed checks and counterfeit money. RBST also located two firearms, stolen property, and narcotics.

Jason Kelly was booked into Robert Presley Detention Center for possessing firearms illegally, identity theft and fraud related charges, possessing narcotics for sale, and for violating his probation.

This investigation is on-going, and anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact RBST member Deputy Passalacqua at (951) 486-6700.

Persons who wish to report criminal activity and wish to remain anonymous can call crime stoppers at 800-78-CRIME (800-782-7463) or 800-47-DRUGS (800-473-7847). You can also leave anonymous information on our Crime Tips Online Form.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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Detectives from the Riverside Police Department’s Economic Crimes Unit were following up on an identity theft investigation when they learned Ms. Ugalde was using several victims’ identities to fraudulently acquire EDD unemployment benefits. They obtained and served a search warrant for the residence where Ms. Ugalde was believed to be staying, located in the 4900 block of La Sierra Avenue, and discovered personal identifying information for many additional victims. They determined these identities were also being used to obtain EDD unemployment benefits.

Ms. Ugalde was not present when detectives served the search warrant, but they learned she had an upcoming court date for a separate case involving theft and fraud charges. As she arrived for her hearing, detectives placed her under arrest. When arrested, Ms. Ugalde was found in possession of another EDD benefits card for one of the victims in this investigation.

The State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) normally investigates these benefit fraud cases, however, their system has been completely overwhelmed with the dramatic increase in cases. This has led to local law enforcement agencies now investigating the frauds occurring within their own jurisdictions. The Economic Crimes Unit has been very proactive with these investigations, and have dozens still pending completion. To date, there have been hundreds of incidents of EDD fraud reported in our city.

Fraud attempts are always occurring in our communities, but have become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Please keep up to date with the various types of fraud and scams by visiting the FBI’s website at https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes .

If anyone has additional information regarding this fraud investigation and arrest, please contact Detective Cory Camp at (951) 353-7117 or clcamp@riversideca.gov. If you believe you are a victim of EDD benefit fraud occurring in the city of Riverside, please report it by calling our non-emergency dispatch number at (951) 354-2007.

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Deputies contacted a male subject who was on Post Release Community Supervision. A search of his room revealed an unregistered firearm and ammunition. In addition, deputies located several victims of fraud related to unemployment claims from the Economic Development Department (EDD). Several debit cards and an undisclosed amount of U.S. Currency was seized. 

Deputies took Chazz Perez, a 22-year-old resident of Riverside, into custody and transported him to the Robert Presley Detention Center for booking on the charges of Felon in Possession of a Firearm, Possession of Ammunition by a Felon, Identity Theft, Possession of Stolen Property and a Violation of Probation. Perez is being held on a no bail hold.

Also arrested was Jaden Samsoe, a 24-year-old resident of Riverside, for charges of Identity Theft and Possession of Stolen Property.

This investigation is continuing and anyone with additional information is encouraged to call Deputy Whittenburg at the Norco Station, 951-270-5673. Persons who wish to report criminal activity and wish to remain anonymous can call crime stoppers at 800-78-CRIME (800-782-7463) or 800-47-DRUGS (800-473-7847). You can also leave anonymous information on our Online Tip Form or wetip.com. 

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

Find your latest news here at the Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle

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