COLUMBUS, OH (MARION COUNTY NOW)—On December 18, the Franklin County Grand Jury returned two indictments containing a total of 40 counts against former college football teammates Andrew Kerobo, 25-years-old, and Deonta Belser, 25-years-old, along with 15 other co-conspirators for various criminal offenses related to fraudulent claims to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. These counts include Engaging in a Pattern of Corrupt Activity, Aggravated Theft, Tampering with Records, Telecommunications Fraud, Identity Fraud, and Money Laundering.

The indictments are the result of a collaborative investigation between the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, Ohio State Highway Patrol, Office of the Ohio Inspector General, United States Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased unemployment of millions of Americans, Congress passed various programs to address the crisis, including the PUA program. ODJFS, the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, was inundated with unemployment compensation claims. This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire an outside contractor to help process the claims. In fiscal year 2021, ODJFS disbursed approximately $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits. ODJFS later identified millions of dollars of the disbursals as fraudulent.

ODJFS referred an allegation of wrongdoing concerning Kerobo, who worked for Randstad, the outside contractor, as a seasonal teleservices representative (STR) assigned to the Ohio PUA program. As an STR, Kerobo was tasked with taking inbound calls from Ohioans requiring assistance with their pandemic unemployment assistance claims. Though Kerobo was terminated after working for Randstad after only 75 days, his login credentials were not deactivated, and he continued making unauthorized changes to and adjudicating PUA claims for three more months. During the three-month period, Kerobo fraudulently released $6,827,460 in improper PUA benefits.

The investigation found that Kerobo worked closely with Belser, who recruited many other co-conspirators to aid with finding people to file additional fraudulent claims. In exchange for their roles in the scheme, both Belser and the co-conspirators received from many of the fraudulent claimants a portion of the released funds. In addition, investigators identified numerous Cash App transactions indicating Belser paid large sums of money to Kerobo.

Ohio Inspector General Report of Investigation file number 2023-CA00011 is now available at:  watchdog.ohio.gov/2024-investigations