Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said at least 35,000 unemployment claims were made on behalf of prison inmates between March and August.
"It involves rapists, child molesters, human traffickers and other violent criminals in our state prisons," said Schubert.
According to Schubert, the state has paid out at least $140 million in benefits. At least 158 claims have been filed for 133 inmates on death row.
San Mateo County DA Stephen Wagstaffe said, "It's scary how much money has been lost, not because it went the wrong way, but because it was stolen...it's stolen money."
The San Mateo County DA's office was one of the first to uncover this fraud scheme in California. In October, 21 inmates, including eight at a Redwood City correctional facility, were charged for defrauding the state out of $250,000 worth of unemployment benefits.
VIDEO: DA explains how inmates at San Mateo County jail got $250K in EDD benefits
"We figured it's probably in some other county jails too, but to find out it's a theft of hundreds of million going to death row, that needs to stop," said Wagstaffe.
So how does it stop? Why didn't the state catch this?
The reason stems from the lack of a cross examining system that would ensure incarceration data is matched against EDD claims.
"We need to turn off the spigot, Right now there is no cross-matching between incarceration data and the EDD like there is in 35 other states," said Schubert.
An issue nine district attorney's across the state voiced in a letter sent to Governor Newsom yesterday. State Sen. Scott Wiener agrees it must be a priority.
EXCLUSIVE: Insiders reveal how scammers are stealing millions in CA unemployment benefits
"We need to take a look at why we're not cross referencing, if there's a statute, that prevents them from cross referencing... clearly that has to be changed," Wiener said.
Schubert called it perhaps the biggest fraud of taxpayer dollars in California history. Prosecutors say the scam involves people outside of prison filing claims on behalf of the inmates.
Other inmates who have had claims filed and paid in their names included Cary Stayner, Wayne Ford and Isauro Aguirre.
MORE: EDD mistakenly takes $10,000 from SF man's account in attempt to fight suspected fraud
Aguirre was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 2017 for the torture and death of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez in the notorious child abuse and murder case in Palmdale.
Gabriel was the son of Pearl Fernandez, who was in a relationship with Aguirre and pled guilty in 2018.
It was not immediately clear if the unemployment claims were filed by Peterson and Aguirre themselves or by someone else using their names and personal information.
ABC7 reached out to EDD for further comment and has yet to hear back. (edited)
See more stories and videos related to unemployment in California here.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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