Lexington man committed fraud to receive $100,000 in unemployment benefits
A Lexington man admitted he lied on unemployment applications to receive nearly $100,000 in benefits.
Tommie Steven Robertson Joyner, 45, pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud, based on applications with false information being transmitted electronically.
Joyner used false information about his employment history and where he lived to apply for unemployment benefits that Congress enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to his plea agreement.
Over several months in 2020, Joyner applied for unemployment in Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, Michigan and New York, according to the indictment against him.
In the application for unemployment in Michigan, he listed an address in Detroit even though he lived in Lexington, and in one application to New York, he falsely claimed he had worked at a barber shop in Brooklyn, according to the court record.
Kentucky, Tennessee and Illinois denied his applications, but Indiana, Michigan and New York approved the requests, paying him a total of $99,195.
U.S. District Judge Karen K. Caldwell accepted Joyner’s plea June 4. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.
The wire fraud charge has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
