U.S. Attorney: eight women charged over 619,923 in Labor unemployment; indictment, not conviction

On Dec. 19, 2025, U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow announced that a grand jury on Dec. 17 charged eight women in a scheme to obtain 619,923 dollars in Puerto Rico Department of Labor unemployment compensation and return kickbacks to a public employee. An indictment is not a conviction. The charges are only accusations; the defendants are presumed innocent. This note invents no verdict. It is distinct from the 3.5 million Hacienda case: another agency, another pot. According to the indictment, Labor employee Luz Garay-Osorio used interviewer access to make relatives eligible, filed false claims, and received about 142,507 dollars in kickbacks, plus about 13,308 in fraudulent benefits herself. Statutory exposure is not a conviction. Release 2025-067.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Puerto Rico. https://www.justice.gov/usao-pr/pr/puerto-rico-department-labor-employee-and-seven-others-indicted-public-corruption