4 charged with scamming COVID-related resort room program

Chanette Lewis, Tatiana Benjamin, Tatiana Daniel and Heaven West were charged with a plot to defraud New York City’s COVID-19 hotel room isolation program of more than $ 400,000 by falsely claiming to be in the healthcare sector and the rooms were then sold to unqualified individuals, according to the Department of Labor and the NYC Department of Investigation.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York City launched the COVID-19 hotel room isolation program. The program, funded by New York City and FEMA, made free hotel rooms available to eligible individuals across New York City. The program was open to healthcare workers who had to isolate themselves due to exposure to COVID-19. Patients Who Tested Positive for COVID-19; People who believed they were infected with COVID-19 based on their symptoms; and people who lived with someone who had COVID-19.

Those who wanted to book a hotel room through the program could either call a phone number or use an online hotel booking platform.

The four defendants secured free hotel rooms by falsely claiming to be in the health care sector and then sold the rooms to customers who were not eligible for the program, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District.

In total, the defendants are said to have diverted hotel rooms worth more than 2,700 overnight stays as part of this measure. Customers paid the defendants in cash and with electronic payment services. The federal government and New York City paid more than approximately $ 400,000 for the hotel rooms, which were fraudulently diverted due to the defendants’ plan, according to the lawsuit.

Lewis worked for several months in a call center handling phone calls and reservations for the program for several months in 2020. Because of her employment, she had access to the identification information of legitimate health care workers. She allegedly abused her position, among other things by misusing the identification information of health care workers, revealing the inner workings of the program to co-conspirators and selling unauthorized hotel rooms of the program to unauthorized persons.

For example, Lewis sold Benjamin for $ 800 personal identification information for at least five health professionals, as well as certain “codes” used when booking hotel reservations through the program, such as employee ID number and license number.

Lewis admitted on Facebook messages that she stole doctors’ identification information to promote the program, writing, “I work for 311 OEM, how do I have medical licenses and such … do the booking and approve … I take doctors and.. Stuff certificate numbers and so on, ”said the complaint.

Lewis also advertised to potential clients that if hotels asked for a health care ID, they would produce an alleged pay slip and letter claiming the person was (allegedly) a health care worker, according to U.S. prosecutors .

The defendants made various incriminating statements on Facebook, including the following statements: (1) Lewis told a hotel customer, “I am booking it as a health care worker, among other things”; (2) Benjamin told a Facebook user, “A friend of 311 gave me the juice for the hotel, so I booked PPL rooms”; (3) Daniel said to Lewis, “We need to relocate this bitch who keeps asking for ID”; and (4) when asked if she had “rooms” available, West replied, “No, I’m not dead, brother / All major hotels are cut off”, adding, “They found out that we are cheating on the system, lol, “so the complaint.

All four of the defendants were paid by Cash App, among others, and their Cash App accounts showed payments that said, for example, “1 month telly”, “Hotel Manhattan 2 weeks extension for Kenny” on the memo line []”,” For the 2-week room “,” Ayo Telly “,” 2 weeks stay in Manhattan “,” the room “and” Hotel for the 4-6. July”.

US Attorney for the Southern District Audrey Strauss,
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Justice

Lewis is also charged with a second COVID-19 program targeting unemployment benefits fraud. She is said to have received more than $ 45,000 in unemployment benefits by falsely claiming she has not been employed since February 2020 due to lack of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, she was at the call center for at least part of that time.

Southern District Attorney Audrey Strauss said, “At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, New York City was developing a program to provide free hotel rooms to qualifying individuals who could not safely self-isolate Homes, such as healthcare workers and people infected with COVID-19. As alleged, the defendants abused this program by falsely claiming to be in the healthcare sector and selling hotel rooms to unqualified individuals. If, as is claimed here, people illegally exploit a public health crisis for private purposes, they will be prosecuted. “

DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said: “During the COVID-19 pandemic, while this city struggled with soaring transmission and death rates, these defendants desperately took advantage of the city-run program designed to provide recreation and isolation for health workers and city dwellers Finding space to quarantine the spread of the virus and contain the spread of the virus.

US Attorney Strauss praised the outstanding achievements of agents, investigators and analysts from DOI, DOL-OIG and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. She also thanked intelligence analysts at the New York, New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) for their assistance and assistance with this investigation.