A mother and daughter in Ohio who allegedly abused their authority while working at the state unemployment insurance agency have been sentenced to prison for between four and six years for stealing about $2 million meant for unemployed residents during COVID-19.
Velma Cain and her daughter, Rashanna Burley, are accused of approving unemployment benefits for friends and family, for which they weren't eligible, according to a state news release.
Investigators determined that the unauthorized actions of Cain and Burley resulted in the fraudulent release of $1,582,251 and $355,382 in PUA monies, respectively.
On April 24, 2026, a Franklin County judge sentenced both Cain and Burley to prison sentences with a minimum period of incarceration of four years and a maximum of six years consecutive to nine additional months on a different count.
In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased unemployment of millions of Americans, Congress passed various programs to address the crisis, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility requirements for recipients. Consequently, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, received an unprecedented number of unemployment compensation claims.
This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire intermittent and temporary contracted workers to process the claims.
In fiscal year 2021, ODJFS disbursed approximately $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits and later, ODJFS identified millions of dollars of the disbursals as fraudulent. To address the rampant fraud connected to the PUA program, an investigative group was established that consisted of the Office of the Ohio Inspector General, Ohio State Highway Patrol, United States Department of Labor - Office of Inspector General, and ODJFS.
The referral alleged that Burley had improperly accessed unassigned PUA claims and removed holds or blocks on the claims, which she was not authorized to do, resulting in ineligible payments to claimants. From their analysis of records, investigators discovered that Velma Cain, the mother of Rashanna Burley and former CSR, had also improperly accessed and taken unauthorized actions in a number of the same claims.
Nearly $2 MILLION stolen.
— Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito (@USLaborIG) April 30, 2026
Insiders abusing the system.
Taxpayers left holding the bill.
This is why the @POTUS/@VP Task Force to Eliminate Fraud exists — and why @DOLOIG investigators keep digging.
Great work @OhioIG @OSHP.https://t.co/VjQgjwgcOD
Another nearly $2 MILLION ripped off by insider schemes. Enough is enough.
— DOL OIG (@DOLOIG) April 30, 2026
The @VP Fraud Task Force and @USLaborIG are on the offensive, delivering REAL accountability! https://t.co/2nVs81uuOX
On January 13, 2023, ODJFS referred an allegation of wrongdoing to the Office of the Ohio Inspector General involving former intermittent Customer Service Representative (CSR) Rashanna Burley. As a CSR, Burley was responsible for reviewing PUA claims assigned to her to verify that all required documents had been submitted.
The Court further ordered the defendants to pay restitution in the amounts of $1,582,251 and $355,382, respectively.
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