Virginia inmate allegedly took $246K from COVID relief funds while in jail

BUCKINGHAM COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- A man formerly incarcerated at Dillwyn Correctional Center has been charged alongside two Newport News residents with fraudulently taking around $246,000 from COVID relief funds while in jail.

According to court records, throughout unknown dates from June 2020 until January 2021, 42-year-old former inmate Antonio Clark was allegedly working with two women -- Alicia Clark and Teonna Williams -- to take personal information from around 17 inmates at Dillwyn Correctional Center and use it to apply for unemployment benefits.

All three people are facing charges related to wire and mail fraud as well as conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, following the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) approving around $246,346 in fraudulently submitted benefit applications, court documents said.

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Clark allegedly obtained inmate information -- including social security numbers -- and passed it along to the women on the outside to apply for the funds, which would either be put on debit cards or directly deposited into bank accounts.

Court records revealed that among these funds was a program called lost wages assistance (LWA), which was expended from the Disaster Relief Funds following the COVID pandemic's impact on millions of American workers.

Although the VEC was able to recover some of the funds, the total loss is estimated at around $233,066.