Covid-19 funds fraudster sentenced to 79 months in prison

A conspirator who participated in a massive scheme to steal Covid-19 funds has been sentenced to six years and seven months in federal prison and ordered to pay nearly $3.3 million in restitution to the New York Department of Labor.

Yohauris Rodriguez Hernandez, 42, of the Dominican Republic, was arrested four years ago after Yonkers police found state debit cards in a hotel room that were linked to 568 state unemployment compensation accounts.

“Defendant took advantage of a national emergency to steal millions of dollars from the American people,” assistant federal prosecutor Kevin T. Sullivan stated in a sentencing recommendation to the judge. “This constitutes serious conduct that warrants serious punishment.

Hernandez’s public defender, Elizabeth K. Quinn, recommended five years in prison, arguing that Hernandez saw little of the stolen government funds.

“She is fiercely loyal to her family, particularly to her children,” Quinn stated in a sentencing letter. “Her purpose in becoming involved in the scheme was (to) earn money to allow her to travel back to the Dominican Republic … to support her sons and her family.”

U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation on Jan. 30 in federal court, White Plains, and immediately placed her in the custody of the U.S. Marshalls Service.

The focus of the scheme was billions of dollars of federal Covid-19 pandemic relief funds distributed through state unemployment compensation programs. The conspirators obtained authorization for $16.1 million in benefits, of which $3.2 million was disbursed.

Hernandez’s role, according to court records, was to enlist U.S. postal carriers to intercept mail sent by the state Department of Labor and to submit fraudulent unemployment applications based on stolen identities.

She and co-defendant Henry Fermin were arrested on Dec. 3, 2020 as they were trying to flee from a Yonkers hotel, where a guest who had been moved to their room had found a cache of mail from the state Department of Labor.

Police also found a notebook and other possessions that contained numerous names and personal information such as social security numbers, dates of birth, financial details and street addresses for people in Arizona, Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Hernandez was already subject to a deportation order and was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She pled guilty in the immigration case and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.

After her release in 2021, she was re-arrested in the Covid-19 benefits case.

Last year she pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, theft of government funds, and aggravated identity theft.

The Covid-19 case was not Hernandez’s first fraud.

In 2014, she and the father of one of her three children were arrested for filing thousands of phony tax returns. In 2016, she was sentenced to 39 months in prison and was assessed $1.4 million.

In 2017, she was deported to the Dominican Republic. She returned to the U.S. illegally in February 2020, worked briefly at a Bronx bar, and in April 2020 got involved in the Covid-19 scheme.

The 39-month prison term for tax fraud was insufficient to deter Hernandez from future criminal conduct, Sullivan argued in his sentencing memo.

“Sadly, the defendant pursued this next fraud with her eyes wide open,” he stated. “A total sentence of 79 months imprisonment is sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to serve the legitimate purposes of sentencing.”

Co-defendant Henry Fermin also has pled guilty. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23.