A Roswell woman has been sentenced to five years in prison for orchestrating multiple fraud schemes involving COVID-19 unemployment benefits and federal tax returns that defrauded federal and state agencies and individual taxpayers of more than $312,000. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, between June 2020 and April 2021, Melanie Willis, aka Melanie Vallejos, 50, submitted fraudulent applications for unemployment insurance and pandemic unemployment assistance benefits to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (NMDWS) in her own name, assisted others in submitting fraudulent claims and filed applications in others' names without their knowledge. Willis obtained $29,788 through fraudulent unemployment claims in her own name and caused losses of

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