A Portland man was sentenced to six months in federal prison last week after he pleaded guilty to stealing more than $147,000 in pandemic unemployment assistance in 2020 and 2021.
As part of his June plea deal, Matthew Kemp, 41, also agreed to repay the money he stole from the Oregon Employment Department. Kemp admitted to filing jobless claims on behalf of 17 people and then taking the money for himself.
Prosecutors said Kemp used other people’s Social Security numbers and birth dates to file for claims.
Some of those people knew he was filing for unemployment assistance under their names, according to prosecutors’ sentencing memo, with an understanding that Kemp would help them secure the benefits.
It isn’t clear from the sentencing memo whether those people were eligible for assistance or not. Regardless, prosecutors said, Kemp kept the money he received from the employment department.
Oregon was among the slowest in the nation to pay jobless benefits during the pandemic. Prosecutors said that on some occasions when the employment department was slow to pay Kemp’s fraudulent claims, he called the agency and impersonated the applicant to complain about the delay.
“What is going on with your system that you keep losing my information? Please call me back ASAP to let me know what is going on and when I can expect to get my money,” Kemp said in one voicemail message recorded by the employment department, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say the employment department paid all 17 of Kemp’s fraudulent claims and mailed checks and debit cards to his home address. Prosecutors said Kemp was a frequent drug user during the time he committed the fraud.
Kemp’s attorney declined to comment on the case.
Some states estimate that thieves stole billions of dollars in jobless benefits during the pandemic’s early days, when unemployment briefly spiked to record levels and Congress massively expanded eligibility for assistance.
The scale of theft in Oregon appears to have been much smaller. Officials say they took steps to guard against fraud and that helped limit what thieves could take.
The employment department says it has identified $24 million in suspected or proven fraud from 2020 jobless claims and $76 million in 2021.
Ironically, the slow assistance payments that exasperated Oregonians during the pandemic crisis may have contributed to the relatively low rate of fraud.
The state was slower to pay out claims and so had more time to look for fraud, they say. And Oregon had a practice of mailing claimants’ first payment to their a home address or Post Office box. That helped prevent cyberthieves in other countries from getting their hands on Oregon jobless benefits.
Fraud has remained a major issue, though. The employment department says fraudulent claims slowed up the processing of legitimate benefits applications beginning last year, contributing to a slowdown in payments that lasted well into 2024.
The employment department says it is aware of five convictions for unemployment insurance fraud that occurred in 2021. It has not reported on fraud convictions in subsequent years.
— Mike Rogoway covers Oregon technology and the state economy. Reach him at [email protected].
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