Detroit man pleads guilty in $1.9M unemployment benefits, pandemic assistance wire fraud

A Detroit man has pleaded guilty to his role in a fraud scheme targeting unemployment benefits and a COVID-19-era assistance program, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan said. 

Tauheed Salik Wilder, 43, entered his guilty plea to wire fraud on Monday in U.S. District Court and will be sentenced on July 30, prosecutors said. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the charge. 

Prosecutors say that Wilder had filed hundreds of false claims for unemployment insurance benefits in multiple states, including in Michigan, using other individuals' names without their consent. He then used or arranged for the use of ATM cards that were issued in the names of identity theft victims to access the fraudulently obtained unemployment funds. 

Those actions led to unemployment benefit losses totalling about $1.8 million, the district attorney's office said. 

In addition, Wilder accepted responsibility for two loans that prosecutors say were fraudulently received under the Paycheck Protection Program. That was one of the economic assistance programs available to businesses after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The loans received were for a total of about $84,000. 

This case was investigated by the Department of Labor Office of the Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency.