WASHINGTON — Three Georgians were sentenced Thursday for their participation in a scheme to defraud the Georgia Department of Labor, out of tens of millions of dollars in benefits meant to assist unemployed individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Macovian Doston, 31, of Vienna, was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date.

Shatara Hubbard, 36, of Warner Robins, was sentenced to 6 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date.

Torella Wynn, 33, of Cordele, was sentenced to one year in prison followed by three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia announced the sentences Friday.

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, from March 2020 through November 2022, Doston, Hubbard, Wynn and their co-conspirators caused more than 5,000 fraudulent unemployment insurance claims to be filed with the GaDOL, resulting in at least $30 million in stolen benefits.

To execute the scheme, the defendants and their co-conspirators created fictitious employers and fabricated lists of purported employees using personally identifiable information from thousands of identity theft victims and filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims on the GaDOL website, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The conspirators obtained the information for use in the scheme from a variety of sources, including by paying an employee of an Atlanta-area health care and hospital network to unlawfully obtain patients’ information from the hospital’s databases, and by purchasing the information from other sources over the internet. Using victims’ personally identifiable information, Doston, Hubbard, Wynn and their co-conspirators caused the stolen unemployment insurance funds to be disbursed via prepaid debit cards mailed to various locations.

“The defendants orchestrated a $30 million fraud by using stolen identities to obtain thousands of unemployment insurance payouts under false pretenses,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively combat complex frauds that waste public funds. I thank the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners for their diligence and dedication to seeking justice for the United States.”  

“These sentences underline our dedication to holding people accountable who exploit federal relief programs for personal gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Ulrich of the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General. “As proven in this case, our criminal investigators and the legal teams at the Department of Justice will diligently pursue anyone who attempts to commit fraud and exploit programs created to help legitimate people and businesses affected by the global pandemic.”  

The court previously sentenced four other co-conspirators who were charged in the Nov. 8, 2022 indictment. In October 2024, Tyshion Nautese Hicks, 32, of Vienna, was sentenced to 12 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In September 2024, Kenya Whitehead, 37, of Cordele, was sentenced to 28 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In October 2024, A’Darrion Alexander, 29, of Warner Robins, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. In May 2024, Membrish Brown, 29, of Vienna, was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.