U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp sentenced a man from Ste. Genevieve County to 34 months in prison on Monday for defrauding both Home Depot and Missouri’s unemployment insurance program.
Arthur Grass, 36, was also ordered to repay $207,000. Grass filed false unemployment claims for approximately 10 people beginning in May 2020, claiming that the employees had been laid off from his construction company, AJE Construction. Grass cashed out the unemployment benefits, which had been placed on debit cards, and gave some money back to the purported “workers” who had voluntarily provided him with their personal information for use in the scheme. In total, the fraud yielded $142,423, including money from supplemental COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits.
Grass also admitted to defrauding Home Depot on multiple occasions by filling a cart with boxes of vinyl flooring and showing employees a fraudulent receipt, claiming that he had paid for the flooring online. Grass then sold the flooring on Facebook. Charging documents state that he stole approximately 468 boxes of flooring in this manner from Home Depot stores in St. Louis and St. Louis County between Jan. 5, 2023, and Feb. 6, 2023.
“Arthur Grass conspired to defraud the Missouri Division of Employment Security (MODES) by filing fraudulent unemployment insurance (UI) claims, causing MODES to pay more than $140,000 in benefits,” said Irene Lindow, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Great Lakes Region, U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Inspector General. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to safeguard the UI system from those who seek to exploit these benefit programs.”
Grass was arrested on March 31, 2022, by St. Charles County police who were investigating catalytic converter thefts. His Jeep was found in a storage lot with Grass inside. Police later discovered a stolen Glock 9mm pistol in a toolbox in the Jeep. Grass is a convicted felon and is barred from possessing a firearm.
Grass pleaded guilty in May to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, one count of conspiracy to steal money from the United States (unemployment benefits), and one count of wire fraud.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the St. Charles County Police Department, the Missouri Department of Labor, the Arnold Police Department, the St. Louis County Police Department, and Home Depot Retail Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware is prosecuting the case.
