Elkins woman admits to more than $400K in COVID fraud

An Elkins, West Virginia, woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to bank fraud for her part in a scheme that collected more than $440,000 in COVID-era unemployment benefits filed in other people's names, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of West Virginia said.

U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey announced on Oct. 15 that Leigh Ann Rinehart, 54, had pleaded guilty.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, other people in the scheme applied for unemployment benefits in the names of multiple people in several states, including Nevada, California and New York. Once the claims were approved, the benefits were loaded onto prepaid benefit cards that were mailed to Rinehart's home in Elkins. More than two dozen cards were sent to her address from June 2020 through November 2022, prosecutors said.

Rinehart activated the cards and used them to withdraw cash, buy money orders and cryptocurrency, or buy other items, according to the release. She sent some of the money and items to others in the scheme and deposited some into her own bank account, prosecutors said.

Investigators found that none of the people named in the claims lived in West Virginia, and none of them gave Rinehart permission to have or use their benefits, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Conklin is prosecuting the case. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and WorkForce West Virginia investigated. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael John Aloi presided over the plea hearing.

The release did not give a sentencing date or the possible penalty.

Charges are allegations. All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.