An Orange County man and his three sisters received federal prison sentences Thursday for running a fraud scheme where they created fake businesses and collected over $1.1 million in unemployment benefits for imaginary employees.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt handed down the following sentences:
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Evelyn Taylor, 41, of South Los Angeles — 18 months in federal prison
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Laron Taylor, 38, of California City — 54 months in federal prison
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Latrice Taylor, 42, of Buena Park — 27 months in federal prison
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Raschell Taylor, 35, of San Bernardino — 24 months in federal prison
The court also ordered the group to pay $567,334 in restitution.
At the end of a six-day trial in July 2024 in Los Angeles federal court, a jury found each of the Taylors guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Between February 2013 and July 2016, the Taylors and their co-conspirators stole more than $1.1 million in unemployment insurance benefits from the California Employment Development Department. They registered fake companies with EDD, claimed they had employees, and filed fraudulent unemployment claims using their own names, others’ names, and sometimes stolen identities. Prosecutors said they used various EDD-funded debit cards to withdraw cash from ATMs across greater Los Angeles.
The Taylors are the second group sentenced in connection with the scheme. Catrina Gipson, 49, of Moreno Valley, received a 54-month sentence in February 2023, while Vernisha Jolivet, 32, of Ripley, was sentenced to six months in federal prison in May 2022.
