Omar Thompson found himself embroiled in quite the scandal when headlines placed him at the center of what they called a $1.2 million Covid-19 unemployment scheme. After pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud, the comedian and entrepreneur faced 20 years in prison. Now that the case is over and the battle is behind him, we caught up with Omar over at our ParleNY brand to discuss the case, the fallout and what he’s building in Harlem on 125th Street. Catch our snippet of the Omar Thompson interview. And go over the ParleNY for the full story of the Omar Thompson arrest, sentencing and the bounce back.
Parlé Mag: Talk to me man. What happened? You’re free to talk about it now because the legal process is over, so talk to me.
Omar Thompson: So more or less at the time, I didn’t know that you could get unemployment. You couldn’t get unemployment usually. In the past when a comedian wasn’t working, you just were working. I mean, that’s how all gig working was, you just not working. Good luck!
That’s the first time I heard you could get unemployment, it was because of COVID. So a comedian friend was like yo bro, you got unemployment? I’m like, no, you can’t get it??A He was like, yeah you could get it.
So I applied for it in New York And I couldn’t get unemployment in New York. At the time, it was like, not that I didn’t qualify, the system was down! Remember that time, or am I bugging out?
Parlé Mag: It was crazy.
Omar Thompson: So, for like this month, you couldn’t get unemployment because you just couldn’t get to the system. So now I’m struggling. And I’m trying every day calling up. There’s no luck.
Parlé Mag: It was backed up for months.
Omar Thompson: Alright, so I’m not getting no unemployment. So now like I have a mortgage, this is not a rent. I have a mortgage! This right here is before they had the COVID forbearance stuff. It’s still early on, so I’m like how am I gonna pay my mortgage? How am I paying my car? How am I going to take care of my family? I got a daughter on the way. My boy says, ‘O, you can get unemployment anywhere you worked at, cause you a gig worker. Anywhere you work, you can apply.’ I’m like, that makes sense. If you worked in Texas, you apply in Texas. If you work there, you can apply for it. Alright, cool. So that’s what I did. I worked in Massachusetts and applied there, I got it.
ParleNY: Massachusetts was giving money, too.
Omar Thompson: The system was open. You applied for it, you got it.
So more or less, I applied for it, got it. Had it for a few weeks and they cut me off. Because early on, they were making rules and they would see people taking advantage and they started changing the rules as they went along because it was so new.
Also, what happened was, when I found out that I got unemployment, I said, you know what, I got unemployment, let me put people on. Because I know mad people that are struggling too. Comedians, barbers, DJs, so I would hit my friends and be like, ‘yo, this is how you can get unemployment and I would do it for them.’ Just send me the stuff and info, and the money would be sent to their account. But when it comes, ‘take care of your boy. Let me live a little bit.’ Right, so boom. I did that for most of my friends. My family, my mother, my sister. Everybody who was out of work, I got you!
I’m not really thinking anything criminal about it. Like yo, this is for us anyway! I’m going to put people on. So that’s what I did. I put people on. But it’s a box you got to check. It says “is this you doing it?” Like if it’s not you doing the filing, it’s a crime. So that’s where I messed up at. I wasn’t them. It was their money. I didn’t take anyone’s money. It wasn’t like, yo, I’ll get your name and put it in my account. I was like Robin Hood. I was like the ghetto Robin Hood.
I mean, the money came, get your money. And when it came, I was like, ‘come on, I want to live, make me feel good!’ That kind of thing. I was good! And then out of no where, they came to my house and they arrested me. And the crazy thing about it was it was not like some shit where I made any real money over what I would have made if I had unemployment in New York. So like once I got unemployment in Massachusetts, the shit ended within like four or five checks. They started doing system checks, so now I got to verify and I’m like it’s me! So I’m legit verifying myself, sending my pictures and all that. If you’re doing a crime, who’s sending your picture and your ID? If I knew I was doing a crime, I would have been a better criminal. I’m thinking that this was what I needed to get done. So more or less, got arrested. They took me downtown. They charged me. That’s what it is. I’m like, I didn’t know this was a crime. They let me go home like an hour later. So now I’m home, thinking nothing of it. It was very embarrassing. They fucking came through my door, SWAT and Secret Service.
They came through like with AKs and ARs, it was ridiculous, and embarrassing too. Like the fuck, the only young Black guy in the nice community, and this nigga getting raided, like typical shit, right? But it happened.
I thought no one knew. Then I get a phone call: ‘yo, you in the paper.’ Then my lawyer calls and says, ‘Omar, you’re a celebrity so they are going to start writing articles about you.’ And then that shit just started popping up out of nowhere. That shit hurt me. But like it was still small, it wasn’t big. And then I think once I pled guilty then more, and more started coming out, more articles. It was like that shit hurt me more than the crime.
Image Credit: Kevin Benoit
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