Cameroonian national sentenced to prison for millions lost via insurance fraud scheme

A Cameroonian National, who committed crimes against the U.S. from abroad, was sentenced to over four years in federal prison for an unemployment insurance fraud scheme, the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Anais Thalia Ossele Massaba, 34, was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
From June 2020 through September 2021, officials said Massaba conspired with co-conspirators to defraud the Maryland Department of Labor (MD-DOL) and other state workforce agencies of more than $1.7 million in unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Massaba and her co-conspirators transmitted wire communications in interstate commerce, from the United Kingdom to Maryland, as well as conspired to submit numerous unemployment insurance claims by using stolen identities from U.S. citizens.
Officials said she and another co-conspirator were married and fled to the UK in September 2019 to avoid arrest and prosecution. Another co-conspirator was residing in the UK under a false identity after fleeing the U.S. in 2025.
The scheme took place while Massaba was residing in the UK, during which one of the co-conspirators gathered groups of people in the U.S. and the UK to fraudulently obtain unemployment insurance benefits from several state workforce agencies during the pandemic.
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Massaba and the co-conspirator she was married to were part of the UK group and were responsible for filing false claims with the Maryland Department of Labor and other state workforce agencies.
Officials said Massaba used a computer to file fraudulent claims with the Maryland Department of Labor. She and other co-conspirators would use two anonymous email address which allowed them to create linked, disposable email addresses for fraudulent applications. This allowed them to file several fraudulent claims in discredited accounts.
A total of 196 fraudulent claims from Massababa resulted in around $1,708,256 in losses, according to the report.
Officials noted that these two email addresses and the fraudulent claims she filed represent only a small fraction of claims filed by the co-conspirators.