PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A former Rhode Island state employee has agreed to plead guilty to charges that he altered computer files to steal more than $500,000 in benefits from the state’s unemployment insurance system.
Ambulai Sheku struck a deal with prosecutors and will now plead guilty to charges of conspiracy, theft of government funds and computer fraud.
Authorities say the 37-year-old Sheku used his position as an interviewer with the Department of Labor and Training to access the agency’s computer files and illegally obtain unemployment benefits for himself and others.
Federal prosecutors say about $350,000 of the more than $500,000 in benefits that Sheku fraudulently obtained were funded by the federal government.
The scheme ran from as early as June 2009 until early 2015.
It’s unclear what Sheku’s sentence will be.
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