Dr. Evan Bradley, an emergency physician at UMass Memorial Healthcare, swabs a woman's nose at a COVID-19 testing and resource fair at Worcester Technical High School Monday on Aug. 10, 2020.
Los Angeles, California – Inglewood resident Selena Stewart, 45, stands accused of orchestrating an elaborate and deeply troubling fraud scheme that exploited a national crisis and preyed on the identities of unsuspecting victims—including incarcerated individuals in California state prisons.
Federal prosecutors allege that between March and December of 2020, Stewart and two co-defendants, Toby Brazier of Los Angeles and Tony Queen of Culver City, conspired to defraud the California Employment Development Department (EDD) out of more than $1.3 million in pandemic unemployment assistance.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as millions of Americans found themselves jobless and desperate for relief, the federal government expanded unemployment benefits through emergency legislation. That expanded aid became a target for scammers across the country—and, if the indictment holds, Stewart was among the more prolific.
According to federal authorities, Stewart and her co-conspirators filed over 100 fraudulent unemployment claims using stolen personal information, including the identities of people who were incarcerated and therefore ineligible to receive aid. The applications claimed the victims had been self-employed Californians suddenly put out of work by the pandemic. Many didn’t even live in the state.
The deception didn’t stop there. Prosecutors say Stewart and her associates listed fake mailing addresses, invented income histories, and submitted fraudulent statements to make the applications appear legitimate. Once the claims were approved, EDD authorized Bank of America to issue debit cards in the names of the false claimants. Stewart and her co-defendants allegedly used those cards to withdraw cash, make purchases, and enrich themselves at a time when others were standing in food bank lines.
Stewart was arrested Wednesday and arraigned on 14 counts, including mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, and possession of unauthorized access devices. She pleaded not guilty and was released on a $10,000 bond. A federal judge has set her trial for August 26. Her alleged co-conspirator, Tony Queen, is expected to appear in court next week. Brazier is currently considered a fugitive.
Though Stewart is presumed innocent until proven guilty, the scale and brazenness of the alleged fraud is striking. Federal investigators say the trio stole not just money but opportunity—diverting essential resources from those genuinely affected by a once-in-a-century crisis.
As the government continues to recover from the financial damage wrought by COVID relief fraud, the case against Stewart underscores the human and institutional vulnerabilities exposed during the pandemic—and the lasting consequences of exploiting them.
