Illinois woman convicted of $11 million COVID unemployment fraud scheme

A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois has convicted an Illinois woman of unemployment insurance fraud for participating in a scheme that submitted nearly 700 fraudulent claims and caused more than $11 million in fraudulent COVID-19 relief benefits to be dispersed.

Hiam Hmaidan, 54, of Orland Park, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and five counts of mail fraud, the Justice Department announced. She is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2 and faces up to 20 years in prison.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Hmaidan operated the fraud scheme from May 2020 through December 2022, targeting the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, which Congress established under the 2020 CARES Act to support workers whose livelihoods were disrupted by the pandemic.

Prosecutors said Hmaidan abused her position as a tax preparer by using clients’ names and personal information — without their knowledge or consent — to submit fraudulent unemployment claims. The false filings misrepresented claimants’ employment status and the pandemic’s impact on their ability to earn income. Unemployment benefits were then loaded onto debit cards and mailed to Hmaidan or to addresses accessible to her and her co-conspirators. The group used those cards to withdraw approximately $2.8 million in cash from ATMs near where they lived, according to court documents.

“Hiam Hmaidan stole more than $10 million from American taxpayers during the COVID-19 pandemic through an unemployment insurance fraud scheme that submitted nearly 700 fraudulent claims,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. “The Fraud Division will continue to find and prosecute fraudsters who exploited a national crisis to steal from Federal benefit programs.”

Anthony P. D’Esposito, inspector general of the U.S. Department of Labor, said the conviction “sends a clear message” that his office will “relentlessly pursue those who commit fraud.” Adam Jobes, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Chicago Field Office, said investigators “followed the money to expose the full scope of this scheme.”

The U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated the case. Trial attorneys Shy Jackson and Meredith B. Healy of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division Fraud Section are prosecuting.

The case is part of the Justice Department’s broader effort to combat federal benefit fraud under President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance.

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