OFFICE OF INSPECTOR GENERALPress Releases
Dauphin County Man Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Scheme
September 24, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General
He and Co-Defendant Defrauded U.S. Government of at Least $2.5 Million
PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Ardavan Alamoutinia, 36, of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, was sentenced today to 120 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and restitution of $3,177,376 by United States District Judge Juan R. Sánchez for a scheme to fraudulently obtain emergency funds meant for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The defendant was charged by indictment in May 2023 and pleaded guilty this March to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, 10 counts of mail fraud, one count of theft of government money, and one count of aggravated identity theft. His co-defendant, Aryanah Davison, 26, of Harrisburg, Pa., pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme in January 2025 and will be sentenced at a later date.
As detailed in court filings, Alamoutinia and Davison used stolen identities to file over 500 fraudulent applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (“PUA”). These 500-plus fraudulent applications were filed using at least 375 identities of current or former employees of Company 1, Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) which a co-conspirator had stolen and transferred to Davison.
After receiving the PII, Alamoutinia and Davison filed, or caused to be filed, the fraudulent PUA applications in 27 different states, resulting in a loss to the government of at least $2,886,876.
The two co-defendants converted at least $2,500,000 of the fraudulent proceeds in this case, spending them, in part, on a luxury sports vehicle and hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency.
This case was investigated by the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, United States Postal Inspection Service, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Inspector General, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney S. Chandler Harris.
On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division (“Fraud Division”). The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.
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