Unemployment Insurance Code: penalties.

Existing law provides the forfeiture of, and ineligibility for, unemployment insurance benefits for certain time periods for any individual convicted in a court of competent jurisdiction of willfully making a false statement or knowingly failing to disclose a material fact to obtain or increase any benefit or payment in violation of specified provisions of state law. This bill would delete the requirement that the conviction be for a specified violation of state law, and would instead require that the conviction be in a court of competent jurisdiction of this state, any other state, or the federal government. Existing law prohibits a person from making false statements, representations or concealment to obtain, increase, reduce, or defeat unemployment benefit payments or for the purpose of lowering or avoiding contributions under these provisions. Existing law requires the department to give a person written notice of intent to file a criminal complaint under these provisions not less than 10 days prior to the filing of the criminal complaint. This bill would delete this notice requirement. Existing law provides that a violation of specified provisions of the unemployment insurance law and the law requiring the withholding of state income tax on wages is a crime, with specified and differing penalties. Existing law provides that all penalties collected relating to disability insurance are deposited in the Employment Development Department Contingent Fund. Existing law also makes it a crime to conspire to commit a crime, and makes conspiracy punishable by specified fines and imprisonment. This bill would make various changes regarding the penalties for violations of the unemployment insurance law, the law requiring the withholding of state income tax on wages, and the Unemployment Insurance Code, including increasing specified civil penalties, making certain violations a felony rather than a misdemeanor, and increasing the maximum imprisonment for various violations. The bill would provide that conspiracy to violate the unemployment insurance laws is subject to the same fines and imprisonment as the violation of those laws, rather than the general fines and imprisonment applicable to conspiracy to violate the law. The bill would require the Employment Development Department to deposit repayments under the unemployment insurance provisions into the funds from which the overpayments were made, to deposit penalties for violations of unemployment compensation benefit provisions into the Employment Development Department Benefit Audit Fund, and to deposit penalties for violations of disability compensation benefit provisions into the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund. This bill would make an appropriation by providing for the deposit of new and increased penalties into the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund and the Employment Development Department Benefit Audit Fund, both of which are continuously appropriated funds.