Dauphin County Man Pleads Guilty to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Scheme

PHILADELPHIA - United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Ardavan Alamoutinia, 33, of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, entered a plea of guilty today before United States District Judge Juan R. Sánchez on one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, 10 counts of mail fraud, one count of theft of government money, and one count of aggravated identity theft, arising from a scheme to fraudulently obtain emergency funds meant for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The defendant and co-defendant Aryanah Davison, 26, of Harrisburg, Pa., were charged by indictment in May 2023, with Davison pleading guilty to her role in the scheme in January of last year.

As detailed in court filings, Alamoutinia and Davison used stolen identities to file over 500 fraudulent applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance ("PUA"). These 500-plus fraudulent applications were filed using at least 375 identities of current or former employees of Company 1, Personally Identifiable Information ("PII") which a co-conspirator had stolen and transferred to Davison.

After receiving the PII, Alamoutinia and Davison filed, or caused to be filed, the fraudulent PUA applications in 27 different states, resulting in a loss to the government of at least $2,886,876.

The two co-defendants converted at least $2,500,000 of the fraudulent proceeds in this case, spending them, in part, on a luxury sports vehicle and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency.

Alamoutinia is scheduled to be sentenced on July 9 and faces a maximum possible term of 232 years' imprisonment. Davison will be sentenced at a later date; she also faces a maximum possible term of 232 years in prison.

This case was investigated by the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, United States Postal Inspection Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Inspector General, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney S. Chandler Harris.