Concord, N.H. – Attorney General Gordon J. MacDonald and Department of Employment Security Commissioner George Copadis announce that Antonio Cardona of Manchester, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty and was sentenced Friday, December 14, 2018, in the Hillsborough County Superior Court, Northern District, to one felony count of unemployment compensation fraud.

Between August 2, 2014 and January 19, 2015, Mr. Cardona filed for 25 weeks of unemployment compensation benefits while knowingly failing to report his employment in order to obtain or increase his benefits. As a result, he fraudulently received $4,560.00 in overpaid unemployment benefits.

Mr. Cardona was sentenced to 12 months in the House of Corrections, with all but four days suspended for two and one-half years conditioned on good behavior, the use of his likeness in the Department of Employment Security Benefits Rights Interview which discusses the ramifications of committing unemployment fraud, and is disqualified from receiving benefits for 52 weeks. He was ordered to repay all of the benefits that he received during his 25 weeks of filing for unemployment, plus a 20% penalty, totaling $11,347.20. He paid $5,000.00 at the time of sentencing.

The Department of Employment Security provides unemployment compensation benefits to eligible claimants who are unemployed through no fault of their own. The Department investigates and prosecutes both criminal and civil unemployment compensation fraud with the goal of protecting New Hampshire's unemployment compensation trust fund.