ELKINS, WEST VIRGINIA — An Elkins, West Virginia woman has admitted to fraudulently collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-related unemployment benefits for several individuals, U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey announced today.
Leigh Ann Rinehart, 54, pleaded guilty to bank fraud. According to court documents filed, Rinehart participated in a scheme to fraudulently obtain unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The scheme involved unnamed individuals applying for and obtaining unemployment benefits fraudulently in the names of multiple individuals across several states, including Nevada, California, New York and others. Once benefits were approved, Electronic Benefit Payment (EBP) debit cards were sent to Rinehart’s address in Elkins. Those EBP cards were loaded with benefits totaling more than $440,000 from these various states for individuals whose…
Review your monthly bank statements and credit card bills line-by-line to spot small “tester” transactions of R5 or R10, which fraudsters use to verify if a stolen card is still active.