(WKBN) - A woman who was convicted in a COVID-era unemployment scheme through her employment with the state was sentenced this week.

Alana Hamilton was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison and will have to pay back $1.1 million. Her accomplice, Lasheta McClellan, was sentenced in September to the same time frame and ordered to pay back $1.5 million.

Hamilton pleaded guilty in September to engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, theft, and filing incomplete, false and fraudulent returns.

According to investigators, Hamilton was hired during the COVID-19 pandemic to process Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims for the state after the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) was inundated with claims after the qualification guidelines were relaxed during th

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