Tampa Man Sentenced for Conspiracy to Commit COVID-Related Unemployment Insurance Fraud, Identity Theft

TAMPA, Fla. — A Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Tampa investigation, alongside the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, has led to the sentencing of a Florida man for conspiracy to commit COVID-related wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and a substantive count of aggravated identity theft.

U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber sentenced Mehdi Tazi, 29, of Tampa, to five years in federal prison. Tazi entered a guilty plea on Feb. 2. The court also ordered Tazi to pay $1,070,647 in restitution, jointly with his co-conspirators, who were previously sentenced.

Steve Aloysius Moodie Jr., 36, of Tampa, was sentenced to five years and 10 months for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Tyree Wingfield, 26, of Dade City, was sentenced to five years and 10 months for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and aggravated identity theft.

Melinda Sue Hernandez, 35, of Sun City Center, was sentenced to three years and six months for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft and aggravated identity theft.

According to court documents, from approximately June 2020 through April 2021, the conspirators obtained personal identifying information of others without their knowledge. Hernandez was employed as a medical assistant at a Tampa Bay area hospital and gained access to patient information, which she shared with Moodie. Thereafter, Tazi, Moodie and Wingfield used that information and that of others to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to various state workforce agencies to obtain benefits. These benefits were then transferred to bank accounts or loaded onto debit cards issued in the names of others. Tazi, Moodie, Wingfield and Hernandez then used the fraudulently obtained debit cards to withdraw money from ATMs and for other personal items. Law enforcement calculated the total intended loss caused by the fraudulent claims to be between $1.5 million and $3.5 million.

In March 2020, the President of Joe Biden signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which expanded states’ ability to provide unemployment benefits for many workers impacted by COVID-19, including for workers who were not ordinarily eligible for benefits.

On May 17, 2021, the attorney general established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Pizzo.