Woman pleads guilty to helping SCI-Greene inmate receive unemployment benefits

A former Washington County woman pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Pittsburgh to filing for unemployment benefits on behalf of her son while he was an inmate at SCI-Greene prison.
Christina Marie Weigner, 48, pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy and fraud in connection with emergency benefits after applying for 19 weeks of federal stimulus benefits that paid more than $9,000 to the prisoner last summer.
Weigner admitted to filing the benefits for her son, Levi Stroud, who has been jailed at SCI-Greene since January 2018 following a crime spree involving numerous thefts in Beaver and Washington counties in 2017.
Levi was one of 33 inmates in Western Pennsylvania charged in August with illegally receiving unemployment compensation as part of the additional $600 weekly benefit provided by the federal CARES Act for people who were left jobless due to the coronavirus pandemic.
During a June 11 phone call to the jail, Weigner told Stroud she has signed him up for unemployment benefits and said he was available to work despite being jailed, investigators said. Weigner told Stroud in the phone call she had back-filed for 18 weeks and would do so again for the following week, meaning he was set to receive nearly $9,300 in unemployment benefits on a state-issued debit card as of June 15, federal court documents state.
Stroud later admitted to the fraud during an interview with prison investigators, according to court documents. Weigner also admitted to the scheme during an interview with FBI investigators on June 23.
Stroud, 25, of 389 Steubenville Pike, Hanover Township, is awaiting trial on the same federal charges related to his own case. Weigner was previously listed as living at the same Hanover Township address, but now resides in Clarksburg, W.Va.
Weigner is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV at 10:30 a.m. June 8. She is free on bond while awaiting sentencing. Her public defender, Jay Finkelstein, declined to comment Wednesday.