Tupelo Woman Pleads Guilty To Unemployment Fraud

PRESS RELEASE

OXFORD, Miss.–Felicia C. Adams, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi, and Richard L. Walker, Special Agent in Charge, U. S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General – Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations announced that:

Olivia Oliver, age 41, of Tupelo, Mississippi, pled guilty October 9, 2014, before United States District Court Judge Deborah M. Brown, in Greenville, Mississippi. Oliver pled guilty to making false material representations in a matter within the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Labor, that is, that she was unemployed when in truth and in fact she was gainfully employed, thereby receiving $26,525 in unemployment insurance benefits from the Mississippi Department of Employment Security funded by the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program to which she was not entitled.

Oliver was released on a pre-existing bond pending sentencing, which will take place following the completion of a pre-sentence report. At sentencing, she faces a maximum possible penalty of five (5) years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and three (3) years supervised release.

United States Attorney Felicia C. Adams stated: “The Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program is intended to assist those who could not secure employment, and Oliver and those who give false information regarding their employment will not be allowed to profit by wrongfully taking funds from the citizens of the Northern District of Mississippi who are truly in need of this assistance.”

Mark Henry, Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security said, “We at the Department of Employment Security are committed to ensuring that only honest Mississippians who have lost their jobs receive unemployment benefits. That is why this guilty plea is so important, and I commend Special Agent in Charge Richard L. Walker and U. S. Attorney Felicia Adams for seeing that justice was done in this case.”

This case was investigated by the United States Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General.