Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Fraudsters Sentenced to Prison for Roles in Defrauding the Government of Nearly Seven Million Dollars

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 unemployment eligibility requirements for recipients. Consequently, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), 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.

An investigation conducted by the Office of the Ohio Inspector General and Ohio State Highway Patrol initially focused on the actions of Andrew Kerobo, who worked for Randstad as a seasonal teleservices representative (STR) assigned to the Ohio PUA program. As an STR, Kerobo was tasked with taking inbound calls from Ohioans requiring assistance with their pandemic unemployment assistance claims. Though Kerobo was terminated after working for Randstad for 75 days, his login credentials were not deactivated and Kerobo continued making unauthorized changes to and adjudicating PUA claims for three more months. Kerobo fraudulently released $6,864,263 in improper PUA benefits, $6,827,460 of which were released after his employment was terminated.


The investigation further determined that Kerobo worked closely with Deonta Belser who recruited many other co-conspirators to aid with finding persons to file additional fraudulent PUA claims. In exchange for their roles in the scheme, both Belser and the co-conspirators received from many of the fraudulent claimants, a portion of their released funds. In addition, investigators identified numerous Cash App transactions indicating Belser paid large sums of money to Kerobo.

The Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's Office handled the prosecution of Kerobo, Belser, and multiple other codefendants.

"Defrauding programs designed to help Ohioans in crisis is a serious offense, and this office remains committed to pursuing that accountability" said Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Shayla D. Favor. "I want to thank Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Myra Scheurer and Brendan Inscho for their skilled work on this complex prosecution, and our partners at the Ohio Inspector General's Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol for their thorough investigation. Together, we have secured a just outcome and helped ensure these funds are protected for the people who need them most."

Inspector General Randall J. Meyer praised the efforts of the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office, stating, "I want to acknowledge Franklin County Prosecutor Shayla Favor and her staff for their continued collaboration in pursuing complex white-collar crime cases. The successful prosecution of these individuals demonstrates that the State of Ohio does not tolerate fraud and corruption of taxpayer-funded programs."

On April 27, 2026, a Franklin County judge sentenced Andrew Kerobo, who entered a plea of guilty to a felony of the first degree engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity charge, to a prison sentence with a minimum period of incarceration of seven (7) years and a maximum of ten and one half (10.5) years. Deonta Belser was previously sentenced on February 2, 2026, and received the same prison sentence as Kerobo. In addition, Kerobo and Belser were jointly ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $6,788,583.

Ohio Inspector General Report of Investigation file number 2023-CA00011 is available.