While hardworking Americans were reeling from job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic, a trio of Georgia scammers found a way to milk the system for all it was worth—stealing millions from taxpayers under the guise of pandemic relief.
The Department of Justice has revealed a disturbing and far-reaching fraud operation that siphoned off $30 million in unemployment benefits from programs meant to help struggling families during the height of the COVID crisis.
Macovian Doston, 31, of Vienna, Georgia, was identified as the mastermind behind this elaborate scheme. A federal judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison—the harshest penalty among the group. His partners in crime, Shatara Hubbard, 36, of Warner Robins, and Torella Wynn, 33, of Cordele, didn’t get off easy either. Hubbard was handed 6 years, while Wynn received 1 year behind bars. All three are on the hook for restitution, with final amounts to be determined.
This wasn’t some small-time scam. According to prosecutors, the group submitted over 5,000 fake unemployment claims between March 2020 and November 2022 to the Georgia Department of Labor.
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