{"id":17899,"date":"2020-12-01T14:21:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-01T21:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jacksonwhitelaw.com\/criminal-defense-law\/?p=17899"},"modified":"2024-09-19T09:28:58","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T16:28:58","slug":"unemployment-fraud-laws-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jacksonwhitelaw.com\/criminal-defense-law\/blog\/unemployment-fraud-laws-in-arizona\/","title":{"rendered":"Unemployment Fraud Laws in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

Due to COVID-19 and the many business restrictions that were implemented to stop the spread, many Arizona businesses have been forced to shut down and let their employees go. In fact, at the peak of COVID-19 employee layoffs, 13.4%<\/a> of Arizona\u2019s population was unemployed and collecting unemployment benefits to pay for necessities such as food and housing for themselves and their families.<\/p>\n

While The majority of Arizonans collecting unemployment benefits are doing so legally, about 25,000 unemployment claims have been flagged as fraudulent and as of September 2020, 5,000 of these unemployment claims have been determined by Arizona\u2019s Department of Economic Security to be fraudulent. Due to the increase of unemployment fraud, Arizona\u2019s Attorney General has increased the auditing of the recipients of unemployment benefits as well as the Attorney General has directed prosecutors to crack down on unemployment fraud and to charge those who are caught committing this fraud.<\/p>\n

If you improperly applied for and received unemployment funds, you are facing serious penalties if charged and you will need to hire an experienced criminal defense attorney to assist you with your case. Call <\/a>the criminal defense attorney\u2019s at JacksonWhite Law today to schedule your free case review.<\/p>\n

What is Unemployment Fraud?<\/h2>\n

Fraud is one of the most common crimes committed in Arizona and throughout the United States. Fraud is an intentional action to mislead another person or entity for either monetary or personal gain, or in simpler words fraud is tricking someone or a business\/government into giving you money that you are not eligible to receive.<\/p>\n

Most cases of unemployment fraud occur when a worker both intentionally and knowingly makes false statements or misrepresents their situation in order to obtain unemployment insurance payments that they are not legally eligible for. If you made a simple mistake when filing for unemployment benefits, this can be viewed as committing fraud so it is important that<\/p>\n

you check your benefits statements often to ensure all of the data was entered correctly and that a mistake was not made. If you notice that there was a mistake, contact the Department of Economic Security as soon as you can to ensure the mistake is fixed and you are not charged with a crime.<\/p>\n

Examples of actions considered to be fraudulent:<\/p>\n