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State crackdown nabs 28 on unemployment-benefits fraud
(Newsday (Melville, NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 4--A stepped-up statewide effort to crack down on unemployment-benefits fraud has ensnared 28 Long Islanders, who are accused of receiving a total of more than $205,000 in payments illegally.
Nineteen people in Suffolk and nine in Nassau were arrested, the New York State Labor Department announced recently. The department worked with the local district attorneys in each county, who conducted their own investigations and made the arrests.
All the defendants have been arraigned on charges of third-degree grand larceny, which is a felony. If convicted, they could face up to seven years in prison.
The defendants are accused of collecting benefits even while they held jobs. Only unemployed workers who have lost a job through no fault of their own, such as a layoff, qualify for unemployment benefits, which in New York State range up to $405 a week, generally for up to 26 weeks.
The top alleged violator in Suffolk is Dorothy Abbate, 55, of Hauppauge, who collected $15,300 while working part time at a local supermarket, according to the DA's office. In Nassau the top alleged violator is Fritznel Honore, 41, of Hempstead, who collected about $10,800. The DA's office said Honore filed a claim with the Labor Department, which administers the federal unemployment program in New York and uncovered the fraud cases, saying that he was unemployed. He was actually working in a program for troubled children, the Nassau DA's office said.
The Suffolk County Legal Aid Society, which represents Abbate, declined to comment on the case. Repeated attempts to reach Honore's attorney were unsuccessful.
Employers pay for the unemployment-benefits program through payroll taxes. The more the program is used, the higher the costs for companies. When the department detects fraud it is largely limited to administrative remedies, such as demanding repayment.
So last year it created the Office of Special Investigations to work more closely with local prosecutors and mete out stiffer penalties. The department said the Long Island arrests were a "direct result" of that effort.
They "clearly demonstrate the value of our new, successful partnerships with law enforcement and prosecutors alike," said Labor Department Commissioner M. Patricia Smith.
Four years ago the department began using a "new hire" database, which allows it to detect quickly whether someone receiving benefits has a job, said Michael Clarke, deputy director of the special investigations office. "It's become remarkably useful," he said.
Before the database the department largely relied on tips from the public, he said.
The department handles about 600 cases of unemployment benefits fraud a year statewide, Clarke said, but he expects that number to climb.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
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