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Show Unemployment fraud a felony No matter what the popular joke may be, abuse of unemployment insurance benefits is a felony, and can and is prosecuted. According to Curtis O. Johnson, of the Utah Department of Employment Security, Cedar City office, gaining unemployment benefits under false pretenses happens often, but, often, the person is caught. However, Johnson also pointed out that even more prevalent than in tentional fraud is "mistakes." Generally these people who make the mistakes are not prosecuted. Johnson noted that in 1979 the State fraud investigation team had investigated in-vestigated 1820 claims for unemployment unem-ployment compensation. Of these there were 1508 found to be either intentionally in-tentionally fraudulent or in error. If there is an error, the claimant doesn't get to keep the money he has collected, and he is penalized for his mistake. In fact he is assessed double the amount of money he collected fraudulently. "When we find fraud we decide the amount of money that was obtained by fraud . . . and we go for that amounl doubled," said Johnson. In addition, the department can deny the claimant anj further claims for one year. When a claimant is investigated and the investigating team feels there was no intentional error, the person is not prosecuted criminally, but he is "assessed" for the "double" amount. "If there is an area of doubt, we give them the doubt," said Johnson. However, if there is no doubt, the case is prosecuted. Last year there were 37 such cases prosecuted in the State. Cases are increasing also. The number of cases investigated has risen from the 1,820 in 1979 to 1,932 in 1980. Claimants "assessed" has increased from 1,508 to 1,596; . and cases prosecuted has increased from 37 to 38, said Johnson. In addition, prelimary figures show i trend in 1981 that could push thes numbers much higher. |