BOSTON — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - Massachusetts), published as received.
BOSTON – A Chelsea man was sentenced today for illegally obtaining unemployment insurance benefits.
Oscar P. Valles-Lopez, a/k/a Oscar Valle, 44, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge George A. O’Toole, Jr. to one year of probation, the first four months of which is to be served in home confinement, and restitution in the amount of $46,218 to the Massachusetts Division of Unemployment Assistance. In November 2014, Valles-Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud.
Valles-Lopez is an El Salvadorian national who illegally reentered the United States in July 2003 after previously living in this country from 1996 to 2001. After working for several years under fraudulently obtained immigration papers, he lost his job in 2009. Although Valles-Lopez knew he was not entitled to unemployment insurance benefits without a valid work permit, he paid $400 for a false permit and made three claims for benefits in 2009, 2010, and 2012. Over the course of several years, Valles-Lopez cashed 111 unemployment checks totaling $46,218.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Cheryl Garcia, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General, Office of Labor Racketeering and Fraud Investigations, New York Regional Office; Bruce M. Foucart, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; and Colonel Timothy P. Alben, Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia M. Carris of Ortiz’s Public Corruption Unit.
