Louisiana Woman Sentenced to More than Six Years in Connection with Fraud Scheme to Obtain Unemployment Benefits

Baton Rouge, Louisiana – Shawnda Augustus, 41, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana has been sentenced to 75 months in prison and ordered to pay $361,074 in restitution for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment benefits.

Shawnda Augustus, age 41, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison on Monday, December 19, 2022, by U.S. District Judge Brian A. Jackson following her convictions for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with a fraudulent scheme to obtain unemployment benefits. Augustus was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and forced to pay $361,074 in restitution to state unemployment agencies in Louisiana, Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and New Mexico.

According to admissions made as part of her guilty plea, Augustus engaged in a scheme to defraud and obtain money from FEMA following the 2016 floods by submitting fraudulent applications for disaster unemployment assistance (DUA) benefits to the Louisiana Workforce Commission, both in her own name and in the names of other victims without their knowledge or consent. Augustus submitted or caused the submission of approximately forty (40) bogus DUA claims as a result of the scheme.

Augustus engaged in a multistate fraud scheme between March 2020 and at least January 2021 to get pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) benefits for which she was not eligible. Augustus made bogus applications for PUA benefits in many states, including Louisiana, Arizona, Georgia, Tennessee, Hawaii, and Nebraska, among others. Augustus also acquired the names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of the victims. Augustus made about twenty-nine (29) fake and fraudulent claims for PUA benefits to state unemployment agencies in the names of these victims in Louisiana and many other places using stolen identities.

Augustus received approximately $123,908 in false claims for PUA benefits, according to the plea bargain. Augustus took the monies as cash or used them to pay for hotels, airline tickets, restaurant meals, and retail goods.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Labor, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen L. Craig.