Westchester 21-Year-Old Charged In $700K COVID Relief Scam: Feds

YONKERS, NY — A Yonkers man was arrested by federal officials for his part in a conspiracy to defraud the New York State Department of Labor.

Errol Murray, age 21, was arrested last week by members of the newly formed federal COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force. Thomas Brace a/k/a “Justice,” age 61, of Altoona (formerly of Albany) and Taliek Lanier, age 22, of Albany were also taken into custody on an indictment alleging their participation in a conspiracy to defraud the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) out of COVID-19 unemployment benefits.

The three men are accused of conspiring with Jamie Johnson, who previously pled guilty to fraudulently obtaining $701,441 in unemployment insurance benefits under the names of other people, including benefits funded by the federal government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The defendants are charged with mail and wire fraud, as well as aggravated identity theft. The mail and wire fraud charges carry a maximum term of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. The charges for aggravated identity theft carry a mandatory term of 2 years in prison, to be imposed consecutive to any other term of imprisonment.

The indictment alleges that Brace, Lanier and Murray provided Johnson with the personal identifying information of other people, which Johnson used to file false claims via the NYSDOL website.

Murray was arraigned on August 31 and released with conditions pending trial. Brace was scheduled to be arraigned on September 2. Lanier, who appeared on September 1 in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, was released with conditions, and will be arraigned on September 7, according to federal officials.

This case was investigated by the New York State Inspector General’s Office, HSI, USPIS and USDOL-OIG, with assistance from the NYSDOL Office of Special Investigations, the Capital Region Crime Analysis Center and the Albany County Department of Social Services.

In May of 2021, the attorney general established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud.

Anyone with information about fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form here.

More information about the Department of Justice’s response to the pandemic can be found here.