Two Suffolk County jail guards charged with Covid unemployment and small-business fraud

Two corrections officers at the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department were arrested today on charges they defrauded the state unemployment system and a federal fund aimed at helping small businesses at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic while they worked in the private sector and were not running their own small businesses.

Jasmine Murphy, 38, continued her fraud even after she was hired as a jail guard in January, 2022, continuing to file for unemployment while depositing her regular paychecks from the sheriff's department, according to the indictment against her.

Murphy and Christnel Orisca, 25, both of Boston, were indicted by a federal grand jury yesterday and are scheduled for initial appearances in US District Court in Boston today.

Murphy was charged with seven counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting false statements to a financial institution; Orisca with five counts of aiding and abetting wire fraud and one count of aiding and abetting false statements to a financial institution.

According to their indictments, unsealed today, the two both filed for pandemic unemployment insurance in 2020, claiming they were making less than $89 a week when, in fact, they both held fulltime jobs - Orisca for two Connecticut-based companies, one that provided security for college campuses and the other that delivered packages, Murphy for a Maryland-based "workforce services" company and later for a Massachusetts company specializing in trucking asphalt.

Orisca became a Suffolk County corrections officer in late 2021; Murphy in January, 2022, according to their indictments.

Murphy, her indictment states, collected a total of $19,868 in both pandemic and regular unemployment she did not deserve, including at least one check for the week ending Jan. 29, 2022, when she was working fulltime for the sheriff's department.

In April, 2021, the indictment continues, she put in for a loan/grant with a private lender in the Payroll Protection Program, aimed at helping small businesses weather the pandemic, for the alleged beauty salon with supposed income of $20,000 in 2020, based on a Schedule C form she filed with her application.

In fact, the indictment charges, she did not run a beauty salon in 2020 and the Schedule C was fake, because she never filed one with the IRS. The lender gave her $17,708 - and eventually forgave the loan.

According to the indictments, Orisca filed for pandemic unemployment insurance between May, 2020 and September, 2021 with the state Department of Unemployment Assistance, and got a total of $26,414 in benefits even though he had a full time job for much of that period.

Then, in March, 2021, Orisca filed for a Payroll Protection Program loan/grant of around $20,000 for the freight trucking business with a monthly payroll of $8,000 he claimed to be running, his indictment states. With his application to a private lender in the program, he filed a forged Schedule C showing alleged company revenue of $115,347, the indictment states.

In fact, the company did not exist, but the lender issued him a $20,000 check, which he deposited and then used to wire $7,000 to a relative and pay off $800 in parking tickets, the indictment states, adding he also used the money to make car payments.