FRESNO, Calif. (Scripps News Bakersfield) — An Air Force police officer at Edwards Air Force Base was indicted on five counts in an unemployment insurance fraud case totaling more than $250,000 during the ongoing pandemic, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California.
Trevon Miller, 28, is charged on suspicion of mail fraud for submitting fraudulent unemployment insurance claims in over 30 states during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to court documents. The documents claim he submitted fraudulent claims using his former identity of Trevon Rodney and told the state workforce agencies that administer the unemployment insurance system he was unemployed from at least April 2020 through June 2020. but was actually enlisted in the Air Force.
Miller legally changed his last name from Rodney before he joined the Air Force, according to documents. The loss totaled more than $250,000 which Miller used for his own benefit, according to documents.
If convicted, Miller faces a maximum sentence of 20 years and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the mail fraud counts.
The case is the product of an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, the U.S. Secret Service, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
This story was originally published Dec. 10, 2021, by KERO in Bakersfield, Calif., an E.W. Scripps Company.
