WATERBURY, Conn. — A Waterbury man pled guilty on Wednesday to stealing nearly $800,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits.
Olajuwon Harrington, also known as “OJ Harrington”, age 31, waived his right to be indicted and pleaded guilty in Hartford to a fraud offense related to his theft of pandemic unemployment benefits.
Using identifying information of people without their knowledge, Harrington submitted numerous fraudulent applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance to the Connecticut Department of Labor. Relying on the applications, CT-DOL awarded unemployment assistance in the form of debit cards in the names of the victims and mailed the debit cards to addresses provided in the applications. Harrington obtained the debit cards issued in the victims’ names and used the cards for his own benefit.
The government contends that the loss attributable to Harrington through this scheme is as much as $793,254.
Harrington was arrested on a criminal complaint on November 30. He pleaded guilty to access device fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 15 years.
His sentencing is scheduled for August 23 and he is released on a $50,000 bond pending sentencing.
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