Gloucester County Man Sentenced to 21 Months in Prison for Fraudulently Obtaining More Than $400,000 in Unemployment Insurance Benefits

NEWARK, N.J. – A Gloucester County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 21 months in prison for illegally obtaining more than $400,000 in unemployment insurance benefits, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced. 

Willie Carter, 24, of Paulsboro, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Reneé Marie Bumb to an information charging him with wire fraud. Judge Bumb imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

From July 2020 to October 2020, Carter submitted fraudulent unemployment insurance benefit applications to various states. These states provided, and Carter falsely obtained, more than $400,000 in unemployment insurance benefits.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Bumb sentenced Carter to three years of supervised release and ordered restitution of $469,582.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Mellone; postal inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Newark, under the direction of Postal Inspector in Charge Charles A. Nielsen, Philadelphia Division; special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Richard Langham in Philadelphia, and special agents of the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, under the direction of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Kogan of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Cybercrime Unit in Newark.