DETROIT – A Detroit man is facing federal charges in an alleged scheme to defraud government unemployment insurance programs in multiple states.
Christopher Powell faces federal charges of mail fraud and wire fraud for allegedly stealing from government unemployment insurance (UI) programs and obtaining unemployment benefits by false pretenses.
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The investigation began in April 2024 when a supervisor at the Jefferson Station Post Office in Detroit became aware that Powell appeared to be receiving mail addressed to homes along his delivery route. Court documents said Powell did not live along his assigned route.
The supervisor contacted the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG) and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) to investigate.
On April 2, 2024, authorities interviewed Powell at the Jefferson Station Post Office, where he claimed he applied and received UI benefits from Michigan in 2022 while he was on approved “COVID leave” from the USPS.
He also told authorities that he had not received UI benefits from any other state, but later reportedly admitted that a friend applied for UI benefits in California on his behalf using his personal identifying information.
Law enforcement showed Powell several pieces of mail addressed to him at addresses along his delivery route. He reportedly admitted to using vacant addresses along his route to have mail delivered to him instead of his own address. One of the pieces of mail was an opened Bank of America California EDD Debit Card under his name that was mailed to an address along his delivery route.
The statement was for the time period Dec. 26, 2023, through Jan. 25, 2024. According to court documents, the bank statement detailed over $25,000 in debits, consisting of ATM withdrawals and Cash App transfers.
Powell reportedly admitted to owning the debit card associated with the Bank of America account. According to authorities, Powell made about 10 ATM withdrawals from the Bank of America account into his personal Cash App account.
Powell said that his agreement with his friend was that he would get $10,000 from the California UI claim, and his friend would get $8,500 to $9,000. Powell received about $20,000 from the California UI claim, including another two or three transfers into his personal bank account earlier in 2024. Each transfer was for around $5,000.
On Feb. 10, 2025, authorities interviewed Powell’s friend, who denied filing fraudulent UI claims and denied that he provided anyone else’s identifying information to file any fraudulent UI claims.
Investigators searched a database containing information on UI applications and benefit disbursements for claims related to Powell.
The database revealed that there were eight separate UI claims matching Powell’s social security number and birthdate that were filed in eight different states—Arizona, California, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania—between July 8, 2020, and Sept. 21, 2020.
Here’s a breakdown of three of the eight UI claims:
- Arizona: $24,576.00 in UI benefits
- California: $63,137.00 in UI benefits
- Michigan: $21,320.00 in UI benefits
The other five states reported that no UI benefits were paid.
Court records claim that Powell received over $109,000 in UI benefits.
Authorities further investigated and found that a similar email address was used multiple times on multiple different claims.
Investigators discovered that about 42 UI claims were filed in 16 states using a similar Gmail account. Nine of the claims were successful, including Powell’s UI claims in Michigan and California. The nine clams paid about $210,000 in UI benefits.
Authorities also found that Powell’s address was used multiple times on various different claims. About 26 UI claims were filed in seven states using Powell’s home address as a mailing address. Seven of those claims were successful in Michigan and Arizona and paid about $138,000 in UI benefits.
In May 2024, investigators found that Powell filed a claim in Michigan on July 8, 2020, using his Gmail account and home address for his mailing address.
ATM footage withdrawals
In August and September 2024, Bank of America provided ATM footage from a withdrawal on Dec. 12, 2023, at an ATM in Detroit.
Flagstar Bank gave investigators ATM footage from a withdrawal on Dec. 28, 2023, at an ATM in the Detroit area.
Huntington Bank provided ATM footage from a withdrawal on Dec. 23, 2023, and on Jan. 5, 2024, at ATMs in the Detroit area.
According to court documents, none of the ATM footage reviewed by law enforcement showed anyone else making withdrawals from the Bank of America account.
Based on using Powell’s Michigan Driver’s License photo, investigators believe that Powell is the person in the ATM footage.
Wire fraud scheme
After reviewing the Bank of America account’s transactions and customer contacts related to the account associated with Powell’s alleged fraudulent California UI claim, investigators found that the account holder of the California claim called Bank of America and disputed nearly all of the transactions and withdrawals from the account after the UI benefits were deposited in 2020 and 2021.
Investigators claim that criminals will often attempt to increase the amount of funds they can fraudulently obtain by claiming to be victims of fraud themselves.
According to court documents, the scheme operated as followed:
- The alleged criminal will fraudulently obtain funds and have them deposited into a bank account
- The funds are used and/or withdrawn
- The alleged criminal then contacts the bank and claims that someone fraudulently gained access to their account and disputes all of the transactions and/or withdrawals
- A bank will often refund all of the disputed transactions and/or withdrawals
- The alleged criminal then spends and/or withdraws the returned funds
Investigators said the scheme essentially allows the criminal to double the amount of funds he fraudulently obtained.
The Bank of America records associated with Powell’s fraudulent California claim showed that UI benefits were deposited from California EDD between Aug. 27, 2020, and Sept. 6, 2021. There were no other deposits from the account.
Between Sept. 24, 2020, and Sept. 8, 2021, the account was withdrawn through a combination of purchases and ATM withdrawals to about 92 cents.
Around July 11, 2023, and Aug. 17, 2023, Bank of America deposited “dispute adjustment credits” for nearly every withdrawal back into the account.
Customer service contact notes state that the cardholder filed a claim in February 2022, disputing all or nearly all of the transactions that happened between September 2020 and September 2021.
In March 2022 and July 2022, the cardholder contacted Bank of America regarding the status of the disputed transactions claim. Both times, the cardholder was directed to a local Bank of America branch and provided two forms of identification. The note showed that the cardholder hung up on both occasions.
On Dec. 1, 2023, a representative spoke with the cardholder, who confirmed that they applied for UI benefits in 2020 and filed a claim for disputed transactions. The cardholder asked for a new debit card to be mailed.
Law enforcement searched a commercial business database and found that the phone number used in the Bank of America account was registered to Chloe Rose, LLC. According to court documents, the officer of Chloe Rose was Powell, and the address of Chloe Rose is Powell’s home address.
Investigators said Powell nearly doubled the amount of fraudulent funds in the account since Powell disputed all of the 2020 and 2021 withdrawals and purchases on the California debit card.
On Sept. 24, 2024, law enforcement agents interviewed Powell again. During the interview, Powell reportedly confirmed that the information associated with the Bank of America account was his. He also allegedly admitted to making ATM withdrawals using the debit card associated with the California UI claim that was filed using his information.