Texas man pleads guilty in defrauding New Mexico of pandemic relief funds

A Texas man is facing prison time after admitting to stealing more than $160,000 in federal unemployment relief funds issued by New Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marc Long, 46, pleaded guilty on Dec. 16 to two counts each of wire fraud, mail fraud and theft of government property in U.S. District Court in New Mexico. Long faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing, but federal prosecutors recommended “a sentence at the low end of the guideline range,” according to the plea agreement.

The agreement states Long “has clearly demonstrated a recognition and affirmative acceptance of personal responsibility for (his) criminal conduct.”

On Christmas Eve, a federal judge granted a motion from Long’s attorney to remove his GPS monitor, which he had been wearing while on pretrial release.

Guy Womack, Long’s attorney, said his client retained him and came forward after he learned an indictment had been filed against him in September. Womack added, “We hope the court will view favorably the fact that he came in immediately and pled guilty.”

In his plea agreement, Long states that from July 2020 to February 2021, while living in the Houston area, he “devised a scheme” to steal the federal funds. Long said he did so by submitting fraudulent unemployment insurance claim applications online through the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions.

“I made materially false and fraudulent representations in the applications by using the names and other personally identifiable information of other individuals,” according to the plea agreement. “Neither I nor the other individuals whose names … I used in the claim applications were eligible to receive the federally funded benefits.”

The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions said the guilty plea sent “a clear message.”

“New Mexico has not given up on finding the people who exploited emergency relief during the pandemic and ensuring they are prosecuted,” Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair said in the Friday statement. “Since the unprecedented expansion of unemployment benefits during the pandemic, our team has continued to pursue allegations of fraud while implementing several measures to prevent fraud in the future.”