Portland man convicted of stealing more than $147,000 in COVID unemployment benefits

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – A Portland man was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday after being found guilty of stealing more than $147,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits from the Oregon Employment Department (OED).

Matthew Kemp, 41, was sentenced to six years in prison and three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $147,294 in restitution to OED.

SEE ALSO:

According to court documents, between July 2020 and January 2021, Kemp ran a scheme in which he used the personal information of 17 people to fraudulently apply for pandemic unemployment benefits. The information included their dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

Some of those people know Kemp is using their information because he promised to get benefits on their behalf, while other people didn’t know that.

On February 7, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a seven-count indictment charging Kemp with mail fraud, bank fraud and theft of public funds.

SEE ALSO:

On June 14, Kemp plead guilty to theft of public funds.

Kemp was convicted on Wednesday.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud related to COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF web complaint form at: https://www. Justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.