A California man was sentenced to 3 years in jail Friday for utilizing his place as a hospital clerk to steal affected person data, which was then used to fraudulently apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

Starting in August 2020, Matthew Lombardo, now 54, started acquiring confidential affected person data, which he then despatched to an unnamed co-defendant who used the knowledge to fraudulently apply for PUA advantages by the California unemployment system.

Text messages cited in court docket confirmed Lombardo and co-conspirators concentrating on weak victims. In one message despatched on Aug. 22, 2020, Lombardo requested “this guy died a few hours ago, how many names do we need?,” in response to the Justice Department.

The Justice Department didn't specify how a lot cash the conspirators had been in a position to steal.

The deceased, nonetheless, weren't appropriate for the rip-off, the co-conspirator responded, writing “find me one who is still alive … someone 55 or younger who is on their way out.”

Lombardo was fired by the S.H. Scripps Health System in April 2021. In the autumn of 2022, Lombardo pleaded responsible to 1 depend of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one depend of utilizing confidential well being data for private achieve, and two counts of aggravated identification theft.

“During a national healthcare emergency, Mr. Lombardo stole the identities of hospital patients to defraud the government of funds intended for people in crisis. This office and our law enforcement partners are dedicated to pursuing such frauds and will hold the perpetrators accountable,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Randy Grossman mentioned in a press release.

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