An Orange County man and three of his sisters were sentenced Thursday to federal prison terms for participating in a scheme in which they created nonexistent businesses, then claimed more than $1.1 million in unemployment benefits for purported employees of those fake businesses.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt sentenced:
— Evelyn Taylor, 41, of South Los Angeles, to 18 months in federal prison;
— Laron Taylor, 38, of California City, to 54 months in federal prison;
— Latrice Taylor, 42, of Buena Park, to 27 months in federal prison; and
— Raschell Taylor, 35, of San Bernardino, to 24 months in federal prison.
The defendants were ordered to pay $567,334 in restitution.
At the conclusion of a six-day trial in July 2024 in Los Angeles federal court, a jury found each of the Taylors guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
From February 2013 to July 2016, the defendants, along with their co-conspirators, stole more than $1.1 million in unemployment insurance benefits from the California Employment Development Department. The Taylors created and registered fake companies with EDD that had no real business or employees, and submitted fraudulent unemployment claims in their own and others’ names, sometimes using stolen identities. They withdrew cash using different EDD-funded debit cards from numerous ATMS across the greater Los Angeles area, federal prosecutors said.
The Taylors are the second set of defendants to be sentenced for participating in the scheme. Catrina Gipson, 49, of Moreno Valley, in Riverside County, in February 2023 was sentenced to 54 months in prison and Vernisha Jolivet, 32, of Ripley, also in Riverside County, was sentenced in May 2022 to six months in federal prison.