South Gwinnett News

An Atlanta couple allegedly scammed the Georgia unemployment system out of more than $1.5 million, according to a recent report by Fox 5 Atlanta.

Shenita Daniel and Wayne Lowe allegedly used multiple stolen identities to claim unemployment insurance benefits by creating fake employer accounts and registering them with the Georgia Department of Labor, Fox 5 reported.

"The defendants share one trait in common – greed," Special Agent in Charge, James Dorsey, IRS Criminal Investigation, Atlanta Field Office, told Fox 5. "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."

In June 2020, prosecutors allege the two used stolen identities to create employees for a fictitious company, Fox 5 reports. The people behind these stolen identities told investigators they had no idea their names were being used as part of the scam and insist they did not participate in the fraud.

While the couple filed for unemployment and were approved by the state at that time, by December 2020, Daniel and Lowe had begun funneling their payout into a company under the name “Simplicity Cares LTD” where Daniel was listed as CEO and Lowe as the company’s chief financial officer, according to the report.

The couple faces several charges including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit money laundering.