For the still employed who, strangely, look on with envy at the newly idle, now might seem the perfect time to wangle a few weeks off. No one can doubt there’s something going around at the moment and who would be any the wiser?
The only snag is that claiming you’re COVID-19 positive is not like calling in to say you’ve woken up with a stonking headache. With consequences of a completely different magnitude for your employer, the former excuse is likely to face far greater scrutiny, as a worker in Georgia recently discovered.
Santwon Antonio Davis of Morrow was arrested by the FBI for allegedly defrauding the large Atlanta company where he worked by faking a coronavirus diagnosis, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a press release Thursday.
The 34-year-old allegedly submitted a bogus medical letter to his employer, a Fortune 500 company, claiming he’d tested positive for COVID-19.
The falsified diagnosis forced the company to shut down for cleaning and disinfection while it continued to pay employees. As a result, the company, unnamed in the release, lost over $100,000 and needlessly quarantined several of Davis’s colleagues.
“The defendant caused unnecessary economic loss to his employer and distress to his coworkers and their families,” U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak said in a statement.
“We will take quick action through the Georgia COVID-19 Task Force to put a stop to criminals preying on Georgia companies and the public with Coronavirus-related fraud schemes,” he added
Davis has since admitted that he never had the virus, according to the release.
“Scammers continue to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic through a variety of means,” Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, warned.
Davis is no stranger to custody, with three previous stints in prison since 2006 for convictions including theft, criminal trespassing and criminal damage to property, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
He may now be rueing the fact that his cunning plan to get time off has worked a little too well.