Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announced that Fausto Balbi (age 32), of Providence, pleaded nolo contendere yesterday before Superior Court Magistrate John J. Flynn to one count of obtaining money under false pretenses for collecting more than $11,000 in unemployment insurance benefits while he was employed. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Balbi was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $11,204 in restitution at a rate of not less than $200 per month.
Had the case proceeded to trial, the State was prepared to prove that on diverse dates between June 14, 2008 and December 27, 2011 - for 52 weeks of the 76 weeks he collected unemployment insurance benefits - Balbi failed to accurately report his weekly earnings to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RI-DLT) when he called in to the RI-DLT Teleserve voice response system to authorize his weekly unemployment benefits. While Balbi was collecting unemployment benefits he was working for SDH Education East LLC, at Providence College Dining Services.
The case was initiated by RI-DLT fraud investigator Claribel Terrero and then referred to the Rhode Island State Police where the investigation was led by Investigator Michael Douglas. Special Assistant Attorney General Carole L. McLaughlin prosecuted the case on behalf of the Office of Attorney General.
"As long as our partners at RI-DLT and the Rhode Island State Police continue to uncover and investigate unemployment insurance benefit fraud, no matter if the fraud took place last week or several years ago, we will continue to prosecute these cases and return ill-gotten funds back to the State," said Attorney General Kilmartin.
The Office of Attorney General is assigned a prosecutor devoted exclusively to prosecuting fraud cases referred by the RI-DLT involving unemployment insurance benefits fraud, workers' compensation fraud, prevailing wage violations, and labor standards violations. The prosecutor in this position is solely responsible for screening, charging, prosecuting, tracking, and reporting case results to RI-DLT and the Office of Attorney General.