Maryland Woman Receives 42 Months for CARES Act Unemployment Fraud

Greenbelt, Maryland — Kiara Smith, 28, of Prince George’s County received a 42-month federal prison sentence on May 13, 2026, for her role in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft tied to CARES Act unemployment insurance benefits.

The sentence, imposed by U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman in the District of Maryland, covers Smith’s participation in a scheme that filed fraudulent claims using stolen identities to obtain pandemic-era unemployment insurance payments. The CARES Act, enacted in March 2020, expanded unemployment insurance eligibility, boosted weekly benefit amounts, and created the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that served millions of workers who would not have qualified under regular state rules.

The Department of Justice has pursued hundreds of similar cases nationwide to recover funds paid out through state labor departments that processed claims without the usual verification standards during the public-health emergency.

The conviction changes Smith’s legal status from defendant to sentenced felon. She must serve the full 42-month term followed by three years of supervised release. The judgment also requires her to pay restitution and submit to forfeiture of any proceeds traceable to the fraud, though specific dollar amounts tied to her conduct were not detailed in the sentencing release.

Downstream, the Bureau of Prisons must designate a facility for Smith within the next several weeks under standard classification procedures. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland will next calculate and enforce the restitution order, transmitting collection responsibilities to the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service.

Federal probation officers will supervise Smith after release, with any violation triggering immediate revocation proceedings. The case forms one data point in the Justice Department’s broader enforcement initiative that has produced guilty pleas and sentences across multiple states for schemes that exploited the temporary expansion of unemployment systems between 2020 and 2021.

This sentencing continues a series of prosecutions stemming from CARES Act fraud investigations launched in 2021. The original pandemic unemployment programs operated under emergency waivers that reduced documentation requirements until Congress allowed the enhanced benefits to expire in September 2021.

The Department of Labor previously estimated that billions in improper payments flowed through state systems during that period, prompting sustained federal audits and criminal referrals to U.S. attorney offices.