{"id":172165,"date":"2026-04-21T20:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172165\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T20:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:58:12","slug":"erie-woman-accused-of-accepting-bribes-to-approve-pandemic-unemployment-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172165\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie woman accused of accepting bribes to approve pandemic unemployment claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">(WJET\/WFXP)\u2013An Erie woman is facing up to 30 years in prison, with federal prosecutors accusing her of taking bribes to approve roughly $500,000 of what they called fraudulent unemployment claims while working at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The five-count indictment against 43-year-old Elizabeth Goss was unsealed on Tuesday, charging her with five counts of wire fraud and theft of government property for the alleged scheme that ran from June 2020 to February 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/north-east-man-sentenced-for-neglecting-three-children-in-2025-incident\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:North East man sentenced for neglecting three children in 2025 incident;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;North East man sentenced for neglecting three children in 2025 incident&quot;}\"> North East man sentenced for neglecting three children in 2025 incident <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Federal officials said Goss accepted payments from people looking to get unemployment compensation even though they didn\u2019t qualify, then would approve and expedite the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and other pandemic-related unemployment claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">During that time, prosecutors said Goss approved roughly $528,449 in unemployment compensation. The US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania called the indictment a clear message to government employees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cThis investigation and the resulting Indictment send a clear message that government employees who steal and misuse public funds will be brought to justice,\u201d said United States Attorney Rivetti. \u201cOur office and our law enforcement partners are committed to rooting out fraud and safeguarding the public treasury.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/chautauqua-county-man-sentenced-for-fatally-shaking-baby\/?ipid=promo-link-block2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Chautauqua County man sentenced for fatally shaking baby;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Chautauqua County man sentenced for fatally shaking baby&quot;}\"> Chautauqua County man sentenced for fatally shaking baby <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Should Goss be convicted, she faces up to 20 years in prison and\/or a $250,000 fine for the four counts of wire fraud, to go with 10 years in prison and\/or a $250,000 fine for the single count of theft of government property, though the actual sentence would be based on any prior criminal history and the seriousness of the offense, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, United States Postal Inspection Service, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry conducted the investigation leading to the indictment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WJET\/WFXP)\u2013An Erie woman is facing up to 30 years in prison, with federal prosecutors accusing her of taking&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[38299,77250,136,138,137,75826,57,77251],"class_list":{"0":"post-172165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-department-of-labor","9":"tag-elizabeth-goss","10":"tag-erie","11":"tag-erie-headlines","12":"tag-erie-news","13":"tag-theft-of-government-property","14":"tag-unemployment","15":"tag-unemployment-compensation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}