Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announced that John Linehan (age 49) of Smithfield, pleaded nolo contendere yesterday before Providence Superior Court Magistrate Patrick Burke to one count of obtaining money under false pretenses for collecting more than $24,000 in unemployment insurance benefits while he was employed.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, the State amended the initial charge from a felony to a misdemeanor in consideration that Linehan paid full restitution in the amount of $24,537 at the time of the plea. As such, the case was filed for one year.
Had the case proceeded to trial, the state was prepared to prove that on diverse dates between January 1, 2009 and February 28, 2012, Linehan failed to accurately report his weekly earnings to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RI-DLT) when he called in to the RI-DLT Teleserve voice response system to authorize his weekly unemployment benefits. While Linehan was collecting unemployment benefits, he was working for Sitecon Corporation, located in Cranston, RI.
The case was initiated by RI-DLT fraud investigator Tommy Ariza and then referred to the Rhode Island State Police where the investigation was led by Investigator Michael Douglas. Special Assistant Attorney General Carole L. McLaughlin prosecuted the case on behalf of the Office of Attorney General.
"Ensuring the state is made whole while holding accountable those individuals who defrauded the system is key to the long term health of our unemployment insurance program," said Attorney General Kilmartin. "By working closely with our partners at RI-DLT and the Rhode Island State Police, we have made significant progress in ending unemployment insurance benefit fraud in our state."
The Office of Attorney General is assigned a prosecutor devoted exclusively to prosecuting fraud cases referred by the RI-DLT involving unemployment insurance benefits fraud, workers' compensation fraud, prevailing wage violations, and labor standards violations. The prosecutor in this position is solely responsible for screening, charging, prosecuting, tracking, and reporting case results to RI-DLT and the Office of Attorney General.