Sacramento woman arrested for $2.75 million in employment development fraud

Sacramento law enforcement officials announced Tuesday the arrest of the person responsible for the largest Employment Development Department fraud scheme ever in Sacramento County, which totaled more than $2.75 million.

Police arrested 35-year-old Jamie Williams-Major earlier this month on 166 charges related to EDD fraud, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday. Williams-Major is accused of filing 166 fraudulent EDD claims totaling over $2.75 million by using the names of state prison inmates and victims of identity fraud.

Williams-Major was arrested alongside six others who were state and local inmates in April 2021 for what the EDD previously thought was a $250,000 fraud scheme. But after obtaining a warrant and searching the contents of Williams-Major’s cell phone, law enforcement discovered “the fraud was 10 times bigger than first expected,” the district attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Williams-Major was arrested in Las Vegas and transported to Sacramento. Her arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday.

In total, officials estimate the EDD paid out at least $20 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims throughout the pandemic. Upon Williams-Major’s arrest in April, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said her case was “another example of what has become one of the most lucrative criminal enterprises in California’s history, EDD fraud.”