Round Lake Beach woman gets 4 years for defrauding state

A judge sentenced a Round Lake Beach woman to four years in prison Monday for helping ineligible people receive nearly $7 million in unemployment benefits from the state.

Leticia Garcia pleaded guilty earlier this year to helping hundreds of individuals, mostly undocumented immigrants, in preparing online unemployment insurance claims that she knew contained false information, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois said in a news release.

As a result, the Illinois Department of Employment Security paid out about $6.8 million to ineligible claimants. Prosecutors previously presented evidence proving that between 2006 and 2012, Garcia operated an office out of her garage where she and her employees saw as many as 15 people a day. Garcia charged clients between $300 and $400 to prepare and file the claims, with the understanding that she would not ask clients for their immigration papers.

Prosecutors said she made tens of thousands of dollars preparing the documents, which she hid in accounts in her daughter's name.