BALTIMORE — A Cameroonian woman was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in United States federal prison for filing nearly 200 fraudulent unemployment claims in Maryland during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal prosecutors say Anais Thalia Ossele Massaba, 34, posed as Americans and used disposable email addresses out of the United Kingdom to swindle the Maryland Department of Labor and other State Agencies out of more than $1.7 million in COVID relief funds.
Massaba and her husband were reportedly part of a wider network of foreign actors engaged in U.S. fraud.
Back in July of 2020 WMAR-2 News reported on a massive criminal scheme involving over 47,500 fraudulent unemployment claims totaling more than $501 million in benefits.
This prompted an investigation confirming the rampant fraud.
The Maryland Department of Labor is still dealing with the aftermath, as it continues efforts to claw back hundreds upon hundreds of millions in lost funds due to inadvertent over-payments for unemployment claims.
As result Maryland residents have received notices mandating paybacks, costing some thousands of dollars.
