Scott Peterson, thousands of California inmates carried out 'staggering' Covid fraud, officials say - NBC News

Tens of thousands of prison and jail inmates, including convicted serial killers and notorious inmates like Scott Peterson, have carried out what prosecutors described Tuesday as possibly the largest fraud scheme in California history.

Between March and August, Schubert said, inmates housed in every California prison and in jails across the state filed 35,000 claims totaling $140 million in benefits.

Schubert said that claims totaling $420,000 had been paid to death row inmates

She said the fraud could be carried out because unlike 35 other states, California lacks a system that “cross matches” prison and jail data with unemployment claims

In a statement, Loree Levy, deputy director of the state’s Economic Development Department, said it was “pursuing how to integrate such cross-matches moving forward as part of enhanced prevention efforts during this unprecedented time of pandemic-related unemployment fraud across the country.”