New York labor department workers snared in massive unemployment fraud scheme

ALBANY — Two state Department of Labor workers allegedly conducted a massive identity fraud scheme to steal more than $1.6 million in unemployment benefits during the pandemic using co-conspirators they enlisted through an ad on Craigslist as well as "friends and acquaintances," according to federal court records.

The pair, Wendell C. Giles, 51, a former Buffalo resident living in Albany, and 33-year-old Carl J. DiVeglia III of Albany were snared as part of investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Labor. Both have been terminated from their jobs, according to state comptroller's records.

DiVeglia pleaded guilty on April 13 in U.S. District Court in Albany to mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, admitting in a plea agreement that he reaped about $225,000 in the 15-month-long scheme that began in May 2020 and ended in August.

Giles, whose wife, Shawna M. McDaniel, 51, is director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Development at the labor department, was arrested by federal authorities Friday and charged with mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury. McDaniel, who remains in her $106,000-a-year job, is not accused of wrongdoing.

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