An accomplice in a massive stolen Covid-19 relief funds fraud has been sentenced to federal prison for two years.
U.S. District Judge Philip M. Halpern also ordered Henry Junior Fermin to pay back $3.3 million to the New York Department of Labor, on Oct. 17 in White Plains federal court.
Fermin and co-conspirator Yohauris Rodriguez Hernandez were caught by happenstance four years ago near a Northwest Yonkers hotel. A new guest who checked into their room before they had moved their belongings found 747 pieces of mail issued by the state Department of Labor.
Yonkers police arrested the suspects as they were trying to flee the area.
The mail was linked to three post office carriers who had been enlisted to steal state Department of Labor correspondence, including $3.2 million.
Last year, Fermin pleaded guilty to theft of government funds, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Fermin wrote a two-page letter to judge Halpern that expressed shame for his wrong-doing and asked for a second chance.
“I think the loneliness I felt and the sense of feeling lost in this world is part of the reason why I chose to keep the company of the wrong people,” he said.
He had always tried to do the right thing, he told the judge, and had always been employed and supported himself. He is scared of prison, and he wants to work and contribute to society.
“Please give me a second chance,” he pleaded, “and I guarantee that I will do everything I can to earn that chance.”
Assistant prosecutor Kevin T. Sullivan recommended not less than four years in prison.
He said Fermin participated in a massive conspiracy that targeted pandemic relief funds that were intended as a safety net for people “struggling to make ends meet during an unprecedented and historic global health crisis.”
Sullivan noted that Fermin’s father was imprisoned during much of his childhood and adolescence. His father was murdered by Fermin’s uncle. His mother and siblings were mentally and emotionally abusive to him, “and even today have effectively disowned him for reasons unrelated to this case.”
Yet, he has consistently maintained employment for nearly all of his adult life.
“The government is hopeful that the ease and willful disregard for the law Fermin showed … is in fact an aberration in an otherwise law-abiding life.”
Hernandez, who Sullivan says was more culpable for the fraud, was sentenced in February to six years and seven months in prison.
Halpern ordered Fermin to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on Dec. 2.
