Two Plead Guilty in Sacramento Federal Court: More Than $900,000 in Unemployment Benefits Withdrawn Using Cards in Others' Names
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California announced that Las Vegas residents Ricky Lee Ware, 43, and Kimberly Ann Wallace, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court in Sacramento to conspiracy to commit access device fraud. U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced the pleas.
According to court documents, between July 2020 and January 2021 the defendants conspired to obtain debit cards that gave them access to unemployment benefits paid in the names of people who did not know them, and used the cards to withdraw more than $900,000 in unemployment benefits from ATMs.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas M. Fogg. Ware and Wallace are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins on February 19, 2027, and face a maximum of 7.5 years in prison. A third defendant, Carlos Lee Sanchez Jr., 46, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty in June 2026 and is scheduled to be sentenced on November 13, 2026.
Prosecutors said the case is part of the work of the California COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Strike Force, one of five interagency strike force teams established by the Department of Justice.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于萨克拉门托的罗伯特·松井美国法院大楼前喷泉。（Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 3.0，Sam Wheeler摄）The fountain at the Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse in Sacramento. (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, photo by Sam Wheeler)
