A man was indicted by a federal grand jury for using the stolen personal information of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) students in furtherance of bank and pandemic unemployment insurance fraud schemes.
Nehemiah Joel Weaver, 36, was charged with 60 felony counts, including bank fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, extortion, and obstruction of justice. The indictment alleged Weaver used stolen identities he obtained from former UCSD employee Mia Nikole Bell and other sources.
Weaver will be detained pending trial due to “a serious risk of flight and a danger to the community", according to an order placed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara L. Minor.
The U.S. Attorney's office reported that Bell entered a guilty plea last week to one count of felony bank fraud. As an employee at UCSD, she stole Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of at least eight students. Bell admitted to sharing PII with the intent to facilitate a bank fraud scheme. She is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on Aug. 15.
The indictment states that Weaver used the stolen identities to apply for accounts and loans at a financial institution. He obtained more than $200,000 in benefit payments from the State of California’s Employment Development Department (“EDD”) and defrauded the State of Arizona’s Department of Economic Security (“DES”) out of more than $27,000.
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act of 2020, Congress provided new unemployment benefits to those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic who would otherwise be ineligible for unemployment insurance. Unemployment benefits were administered in California and Arizona.
The U.S. Attorney’s office reported that Weaver’s indictment includes an extortion charge base on text messages sent to an acquaintance demanding money, threatening that a third person would be charged with fraud. Weaver is also charged with obstruction of justice, based in part on Weaver sending to a victim a photograph of the victim’s minor daughter along with text messages reading “Lol so dead you don’t even know it yet” and “Can’t wait to see the look on your face. Paid good money to see it.”
The next court hearing is a Motion Hearing and Trial Setting before U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel on June 13, 2022.
