Atlanta couple accused of stealing $1.5M in unemployment scheme

ATLANTA - An Atlanta couple will face the judge after officials say they scammed the system for over $1.5 million in unemployment benefits.

Shenita Daniel, 42, and Wayne A. Lowe, Jr., 43, are accused of using multiple stolen identities to claim unemployment insurance benefits. Officials say they were able to do this by creating fake employer accounts and registering them with the Georgia Department of Labor.

"The defendants share one trait in common – greed," said Special Agent in Charge James E. Dorsey, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office.  "Their desire for money, power and material items, drove them to perpetrate crimes against our unemployment insurance system and prey upon many individuals within our community."

Prosecutors say in June 2020, Daniel and Lowe not only created a fake employer, but used stolen identities to make up employees for the fictitious company. The people behind these stolen identities claim they had no idea this was going on and decline being part of the scheme.

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Documents show the couple then filed for unemployment, and it was approved by the state.

By Dec. 2020, officials say Daniel and Lowe began funneling their payout into a bank account for a company called ‘Simplicity Cares LTD.’ Daniel was listed as the company's CEO and Lowe was listed as its CFO. The ‘company’ began making payroll payments to the two.

The couple is being charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

This isn't the first time pandemic relief funds were misused.

"…at least $163 billion in pandemic UI benefits could have been paid improperly, with a significant portion attributable to fraud," said Department of Labor Inspector General Larry Turner in a hearing back in March 2022.

Since the claimed start dates of this scheme in Atlanta, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to crack down on cases like this and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The task force was founded in May 2021.