8 from Brooklyn charged with multimillion-dollar COVID relief fraud
Social media posts showed defendants fanning wads of 'unemployment' cash
Eight Brooklyn residents, all in their late teens or early and mid-twenties, have been charged in connection with a scheme to obtain millions of dollars in unemployment insurance benefits funded, in whole or in part, by COVID-19 pandemic assistance programs, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
A criminal complaint was unsealed on Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court charging Bryan Abraham, Carlos Vazquez, Angel Cabrera, Armani Miller, Johan Santos, Gianni Stewart, Andre Ruddock and Seth Golding with conspiracy to commit access device fraud.
Six of them were arrested on Tuesday morning and made their initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes. Miller and Santos remain at large.