NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A Virginia inmate was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Monday for participating in a scheme to receive pandemic unemployment benefits using inmates’ identifying information.
Court documents show that 39-year-old Michael Anthony White, a former resident of Norfolk, was incarcerated at the Lawrenceville Correctional Center in 2020.
That May, the Department of Justice said he began working with 38-year-old Mary Landon Benton from Portsmouth to carry out the scheme using Lawrenceville’s inmates’ information. The two successfully completed approximately 10 unemployment claims.
Michael Lee Lewis, Jr., an Augusta Correctional Center inmate, worked with Benton and co-defendant, Angelica Cartwright-Powers to run the scheme at his facility.
Benton, White, and inmates from two other prisons, successfully completed employment claims for 31 inmates. Cartwright-Powers successfully completed claims for four inmates.
According to a Department of Justice press release, White and the others involved received a total of over $330,000 which they shared. The conspirators originally obtained over $436,834 but the Virginia Employment Commission was able to recover some of those funds.
Benton and Lewis have been sentenced to 78 to 115 months of imprisonment, while Cartwright-Powers has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and is scheduled for sentencing on March 24.
