PHILADELPHIA, PA — A Hummelstown man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $3.17 million in restitution after pleading guilty to charges stemming from a multistate scheme involving fraudulent applications for COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
U.S. District Judge Juan R. Sánchez sentenced Ardavan Alamoutinia, 36, to 120 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Alamoutinia pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, 10 counts of mail fraud, one count of theft of government money and one count of aggravated identity theft.
According to court filings cited by federal prosecutors, Alamoutinia and co-defendant Aryanah Davison, 26, of Harrisburg, used stolen identities to submit more than 500 fraudulent applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
Prosecutors reported that the applications used the identities of at least 375 current or former employees of an unidentified company. According to court filings, a co-conspirator stole the personally identifiable information and transferred it to Davison.
Alamoutinia and Davison then filed or caused applications to be filed in 27 states, resulting in a government loss of at least $2,886,876, according to prosecutors.
Federal authorities stated that the two converted at least $2.5 million in proceeds, spending some of the money on a luxury sports vehicle and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.
Davison pleaded guilty in January 2025 and is awaiting sentencing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The investigation involved the inspectors general for the U.S. Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, NASA and Social Security Administration, along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Chandler Harris is prosecuting the case.
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