Maryland contractor employee admits unemployment benefits fraud

What happened

Katrina McCant, a former employee of a Maryland state contractor, has pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, the US Department of Justice announced on 10 August 2026.

McCant, 41, of Baltimore, used her work supporting the Maryland Department of Labor to obtain unemployment benefits fraudulently between January and December 2021, according to the department’s account of her guilty plea. Her employer provided support services to the state agency but was not named in the announcement.

Prosecutors said McCant initiated some unemployment insurance claims herself and took control of others by replacing claimants’ names and email addresses with her own. Changes to claimant names helped direct benefit payments into her financial accounts.

Her access also allowed her to upload and approve supporting documents, remove payment holds and certify weeks for benefit claims. These actions enabled payments that the claims process would otherwise have held back or required further approval to release.

McCant used personal identifying information belonging to several real people to alter claims in the state system. The Justice Department identified those people as victims of aggravated identity theft, one of the offences to which she pleaded guilty.

The scheme also involved facilitating fraudulent claims for other people in return for a single fee per claim. According to the plea account, McCant removed fraud holds and carried out other approval steps for those individuals, who often paid her through PayPal.

Her fees ranged from about $500 to $8,000 per claim, depending on its size. The announcement did not identify the people who paid her or give the total number of claims involved.

The background

The offences took place during the Covid-19 pandemic and concerned unemployment insurance, the benefits programme for eligible people who are out of work. The source of this reporting is the US Department of Justice announcement, issued by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.

McCant’s employment arrangement is an important distinction: she worked for a company supporting the state agency, rather than being identified as a direct state employee. The case illustrates how contractor staff can hold access that affects public payments and personal records.

The conduct described was not limited to submitting false information from outside the benefits system. It involved using internal permissions to change records and move claims through approval stages. That makes the handling of authorised access central to the case, alongside the accuracy of the original applications.

Identity misuse has also featured in other workplace financial offences. In an earlier Alaska tribal embezzlement case, the Justice Department said a former council accountant stole colleagues’ identities and embezzled more than $98,000. The cases involve different organisations but both connect financial wrongdoing with misuse of other people’s identifying information.

What people are saying

US Attorney Kelly O. Hayes announced the guilty plea alongside Anthony P. D’Esposito, inspector general at the US Department of Labor, and Jimmy Paul, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore office. Hayes credited the Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI for their investigative work.

The Justice Department described the prosecution as part of the Trump administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. It said the task force, chaired by Vice-President J.D. Vance, brings together government agencies to address fraud, waste and abuse in federal benefit programmes.

The announcement also referred to the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division on 7 April. The department said the division’s role was to investigate and prosecute fraud against the American public.

What happens next

Under her plea agreement, McCant agreed to pay the Maryland Department of Labor at least $550,000 in restitution. Restitution is a payment intended to compensate a victim for losses.

She also agreed to forfeiture of at least $550,000, a separate legal measure involving the surrender of money or property connected to an offence. The announcement does not explain how the two obligations will interact, so they should not be treated as a confirmed combined recovery.

The release gives no sentencing date or expected prison term. Assistant US Attorneys Jared W. Murphy and Harry Gruber are prosecuting the case.

The Justice Department said suspected attempted fraud involving Covid-19 could be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud on 866-720-5721 or through its online complaint form.