CEDAR RAPIDS – An Iowa man who received over $13,000 in fraudulently obtained CARES Act unemployment funds was sentenced today to nine months in federal prison.
Brian Lynn Whorton, age 55, from Marion, Iowa, received the prison term after a January 25, 2021 guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.
Information from sentencing and a criminal complaint showed that Whorton received over $13,000 in unemployment funds to which he was not entitled from the State of Arizona. Whorton withdrew some of the funds in cash and used a Bitcoin ATM to send the funds to other participants in the scheme. Whorton kept some of the funds for himself.
Whorton was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Whorton was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment. He was ordered to make $13,740 in restitution the Arizona Department of Economic Security. He must also serve a two-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Whorton was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marshal on September 10, 2021.
