Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced today that 10 former employees of the Internal Revenue Service have been indicted by a federal grand jury for receiving a total of more than $112,000 in unemployment benefits while they worked at the agency.
Michelle Glavin, 32, Christopher Bair, 50, Tiffani Harding, 26, Christopher Castillo, 33, Brenda Jones, 49, and Jesse Love, 60, all of Kansas City, Mo., Priscillia Smith, 46, and Leisa Hunsel, 38, both of Belton, Mo., Shalonda Bradley, 40, of Grandview, Mo., and Berneta Weedin, 59, of Platte Woods, Mo., were charged in a 20-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2013. The indictment was unsealed and made public upon the arrests and initial court appearances of several defendants.
The federal indictment alleges that each of the 10 defendants claimed unemployment benefits while they were employed by the IRS. The defendants are no longer employed at the IRS. The amount of state and federal benefits fraudulently received by each defendant ranged from $21,348 to $6,127. The amount of fraudulent benefits totaled $112,609.
Each of the 10 defendants is charged with one count of theft of government property and one count of bank fraud. The indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require each defendant to forfeit to the government a money judgment for the amount of benefits received.
Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
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