Six accused in Sutter County benefits fraud case

SACRAMENTO
August 27, 2012 9:01pm

Arrests are being made on new charges in a continuing investigation into a fraudulent unemployment and disability benefits scheme based out of Sutter County, says U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

In a 24-count indictment that was unsealed Monday, a federal grand jury charged Ryan Herbert Smith, 46, of Turlock; Chindo Gharu, 49, of Yuba City; Seema Rajput, 45, of Modesto; Rajinder Kaur Dhillon, 70, of Sacramento; Rajinder Kaur Dhillon 47, of Yuba City; and Balwinder Singh Khangura, 64, of Yuba City and Sacramento, with participating in a scheme to defraud the state of California of unemployment and disability benefits.

According to a previous indictment, Mohammad Nawaz Khan, 56; Mohammad Adnan Khan, 31; Iqila Begum Khan, 31, all of Live Oak, and Mohammad Shahbaz Khan 56, of Yuba City, controlled a series of companies that were reported to the Employment Development Department as farm labor contractors.

The Khans sold fake paystubs to other people in the community and used the companies they controlled to report false wages for the individuals who purchased those paystubs, prosecutors say. The Khans at times instructed the purchasers how the fake paystubs could be used to fraudulently claim unemployment and disability benefits, the government says.

Over the course of the conspiracy, the defendants reported wages for over 400 separate individuals that resulted in more than 2,000 fraudulent claims for unemployment and disability benefits.

The loss in this case is over $5 million.

The investigation in this case is ongoing to determine the full extent of the fraud.