Help!! Need advice

[scaredtodeath12]

Well "captain obnoxious"...Find your advice with an attorney. lol...

I'm sorry, I really wasnt trying to be obnoxious. More on the funny side... guess it didnt come across that way

 

[cbg]

No, it didn't.

We've had quite a few people come back here and report that by following commentator's advice, they were able to win their appeal/prevail on their claim/avoid penalties. But if you think your history of bad decisions will get you further than her 30 some years experience working for Unemployment, well, I guess that's up to you.

 

[Silverplum]

I can never let this sentence go without comment of some sort:

I am a mom and can't to go to jail

Puh-leeeze. Don't do the crime if you are so extra-specially essential, captain obvious.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY
Hope I'm posting in the correct place. Please excuse the long post. I'm panicking. I recently got let go at my previous job that I was at for 8 years and filed for unemployment benefits and got approved. While collecting, I was working with a temp agency trying to either get a job, or temporary work. The temporary work I got was paid by check directly from the place I did the temp work for off the books (no taxes taken out). I did not claim this work when filing every week. I know it was wrong! Desperation and trying to keep your home leads you to do some stupid crap!! Well, here I am today, and I received a letter from the dept of labor stating they received information indicating that I may be engaging in activity that is considered work and/or may generate other business income and that they are investigating the matter. I don't know what to do. Do I just call and fess up? I'm willing to pay it all back. I just want it to go away! Do I just sit back and let them investigate and say nothing? Will I go to jail?? The approximate amount they have paid out to me is about $4000. I Cant sleep, I can't eat, I'm literally panicking. I don't know what to do and what will happen to me. Please help!

You could wait until they complete their investigation and then be very cooperative as discussed in commentators response.

 

[Just Blue]

LOL... how? In my backyard? lol They have been cashed already, so too late for that.... yes I did read the commentators response and it is very insightful. I am just unsure if incriminating myself at this time is the best decision. I think it's best I allow them to investigate and come up with whatever they come up with on their own... but I could be very wrong about this.

Hire an attorney to assist you.

 

[davew128]

It's easy to bury a few checks.

Exceedingly.

 

[scaredtodeath12]

Thank you

Thank you all for your advice in this matter. especially commentator. If anyone else has any helpful advice to add, please feel free. I really appreciate it.

 

[commentator]

Please re-read my post. I know of what I am speaking. Yes, you committed fraud. I don't know why, but for some reason, people love to jump on people who've done dumbbutt dishonest things like this and make sure to tell them they're sorry, no good low down people, tell them they're going to rot in jail, etc. I wish the same strict standards applied to say, for instance, politicians who sell us out wholesale to the highest bidder and sleep like babies convinced of their own righteousness.

But when you do this dishonest deed, you have to be prepared to listen to this, because you set yourself up to hear it. It doesn't pay to be too sensitive.

But having worked in the field for many years, I repeat everything I said. Often people who haven't done any other major crimes for some reason think they can get away with things in this area. They're wrong. They're dishonest and they're dumb. You were stupid. You were deliberately dishonest.

Now is the time to come perfectly clean about it. Could you lay low, make the agency chase you down, get an attorney, let them deny deny deny if accused, expect the employer to keep your story going, to say they gave you those checks for doing housework or selling them something? (They won't, believe me, even if you are their best friend or their relative or whatever, they'll talk long before they'll keep quiet for you if they might get in trouble.)

What the department will do right now is investigate. If they go to the employer, go to the suspected workplace, talk to people who worked beside you, check the records of exactly what the payroll records of the company show (which could get the employer in a load of trouble, you know) look at what you drew in unemployment in which weeks, they're going to catch you enough to find you guilty of unemployment fraud. As I said, they are not a court, they are an agency. They don't have to give you all those rights and so forth that a criminal prosecution will involve if it happens.

If you hire an attorney, try to claim you are innocent, argue that you're "innocent until PROVEN quilty," guess what? You have just made yourself about 200 times more likely to be one of the few people committing unemployment fraud who are actually prosecuted by the state each year. And you did it, anyhow. Get it taken care of now, at this stage, so you won't have to worry about it any more. Right now there's very little risk of a criminal penalty, or a criminal record to haunt you through the rest of your life.

Why go through all this, spend all the money you'd spend on an attorney, and still lose? Because believe me, you WILL lose, you will be found guilty and then would come the criminal penalties. Not usually jail time, for the reasons I cited, there are too darn many people who do this dumb minor crime that do not need to be incarcerated. They are not a danger to society. They need a severe slap on the wrist, ( or probably that much more tender area, the pocketbook!) and a reminder not to be stupid as this again.

Call them back NOW, confess exactly what you did, be ready to make reparations. That's the very best thing for you to do. You do not need an attorney to do this for you and it will not benefit you one iota to have an attorney make the call for you. There is no negotiation involved here, no way to present things that is going to be better for you. Strict honesty is the necessary thing to do. Like I said, later if you were to be prosecuted and this went into the court system, then would be the time to get an attorney.

 

[jimnyc]

The temporary work I got was paid by check directly from the place I did the temp work for off the books (no taxes taken out). I did not claim this work when filing every week.

Getting a check with no taxes taken out doesn't necessarily mean you were working "under the table". I had the identical scenario and all was legitimate. I was actually a 1099 contractor and liable for paying my own taxes quarterly. Did you ever fill out any paperwork at all about taxes and identification prior to starting there?

 

[eerelations]

Getting a check with no taxes taken out doesn't necessarily mean you were working "under the table". I had the identical scenario and all was legitimate. I was actually a 1099 contractor and liable for paying my own taxes quarterly. Did you ever fill out any paperwork at all about taxes and identification prior to starting there?

Yes OP, don't forget that at tax time you will have to report this income and pay taxes on it (even if you didn't complete any forms as jimnyc describes). If you don't report this income you will be committing fraud again.