A U.S. District Court judge sentenced Diameter Akala to seven-and-a-half years in prison Monday for his role as the leader of an unemployment scheme that netted an estimated $1.5 million from the Maryland and Pennsylvania labor departments.
Akala, 43, of Silver Spring pleaded guilty in May to his role in the scheme, which involved setting up fake companies and then filing fraudulent unemployment claims for friends and family members who were listed as employees. Akala would file for unemployment benefits after the employees were supposedly “laid off” from the non-existent companies.
Federal prosecutors said Akala filed documents with the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation as well as with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry in the names of companies he created—such as Event Solutions Silver Spring and Latin Productions—that falsely stated the fake companies employed and paid wages to employees.
Akala provided the friends and family members with prepaid debit cards or cash in exchange for the use of their names and addresses in the fraudulent unemployment claims, prosecutors said.
Akala was sentenced by Judge Ellen Hollander in U.S. District Court in Baltimore to 90 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1.468 million in restitution. Eight other co-conspirators who participated in the scheme with Akala were previously sentenced between one to three years each for their roles, according to federal prosecutors.
