NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — A man from Newport News was sentenced to 68 months in prison for his role in a fraud scheme involving pandemic-related unemployment benefits, the Department of Justice said Wednesday in a news release.
From May 2020 to May 2021, the DOJ said 39-year-old Reginald Phillips was incarcerated at Hampton Roads Regional Jail for assaulting a woman and shooting another victim.
According to court documents, Phillips created a scheme with a non-incarcerated co-conspirator to fraudulently obtain federal unemployment benefits that came with the coronavirus pandemic.
He had at least 13 other inmates give their personal identifying information to the co-conspirator, who filed fake applications for the benefits on their behalf.
The DOJ said Phillips would talk with his co-conspirator about the fraudulent claims on jail calls, and give him instructions on where to send the funds. Philips got his share of the benefits through a commissary account, and deposited funds into other inmates' accounts once his filled up, court documents said.
The other inmate's accounts would transfer those funds back to Phillips.
In total, the DOJ said Phillips was responsible for a loss of $210,310 from the Virginia Employment Commission.
