The devil is busy.

On April 9, 2021, 35-year-old Jamie Williams-Major was arrested over alleged California Employment Development Department (CA EDD) fraud that involved six other individuals with gang-related ties, and two who faced murder charges. This arrest was a coordinated effort with agents from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the Employment Development Department, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

What does the good book say? Bad company corrupts good morals.

From the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office website:

Williams-Major was arrested at her place of employment. Investigators later served a search warrant at her residence on Laramie Lane in Sacramento County and discovered a significant amount of EDD paperwork belonging to fraudulent accounts and other fraudulent credit card evidence. The suspects fraudulently obtained more than $250,000. The two suspects currently housed by the California Department of Corrections will be transported to Sacramento to face charges along with Williams-Major and the four individuals in local custody.

“The circumstances of this investigation and arrest are unfortunately another example of what has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in California’s history, EDD fraud,” said District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.

Apparently so. As of October 2021, the bill on CA EDD fraud has reached $20 billion, and as more perpetrators are discovered, that number could well rise. So, who is going to foot this bill? At the end of October 2021, after a long-delayed California Legislature hearing with the California Employment Development Department produced more questions than answers, it is looking like California businesses, who had to close during the 2020 pandemic through no fault of their own, are going to be saddled with it.

California leads the way… in killing business and robbing taxpayers blind.

Since the Williams-Major gang’s arrest, fraud perpetrators continue to be discovered.

In December 2021, Abdul-Malik McClain, a 22-year old former University of Southern California football player, was arrested and charged with 10 counts of mail fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft. On January 14, just five days ago, the disability benefits department of the CA EDD decided it needed to freeze 345,000 applications in order to battle suspected organized fraud rings and fake applications.

But remember all that EDD paperwork discovered at the raid of Williams-Major’s home? It gets better.

From the California Globe:

Tuesday, Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert issued a follow up press statement about Williams-Major, announcing the charges were now up to 166 in a fraud scheme totaling more than $2.75 million dollars.

Nicholas Johnson of the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office filed a lengthy, 87-page felony complaint:

JAMIE WILLIAMS-MAJOR, did commit a felony, namely: a violation of Section 2101 of the Unemployment Insurance Code of the State of California, in that said defendant did willfully make a false statement and representation and knowingly fail to disclose a material fact and use a false name, false social security number, and other false identification, to wit, ALAY SINGH, to obtain, increase, reduce, and defeat any benefit and payment for the maker or for any other person, under the provisions of Division One of the California Unemployment Insurance Code and the provisions of any unemployment insurance law of the federal government.

The complaint goes on to list the other 165 counts and identities stolen. So far there is no indication of whether this involved the federal pandemic unemployment assistance funds, but the odds trend in that direction.

Had this been Los Angeles, instead of Sacramento, Williams-Major would probably be sitting on a beach sipping an umbrella drink while awaiting a trial that might never come, while Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón would be mounting her defense instead of prosecuting her for the crimes. Sacramento County is fortunate to have a district attorney that believes in the actual work of rooting out crime and prosecuting criminals. As Californians live through the rampant crime that plagues Los Angeles and San Francisco, and has spread like a pestilence through other cities and municipalities in the once-Golden State, it is apparent that a lion’s share of prosecutorial law enforcement does not.