A woman who was arrested in Epworth and accused of falsely claiming nearly $18,000 in COVID-19 unemployment benefits has pleaded guilty in federal court. Holly Jacobi pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to two counts of theft of government funds and one count of wire fraud. Jacobi faces a possible maximum 40 years in prison. A report says Jacobi filed a fraudulent application for Iowa unemployment benefits on April 6, 2020. Jacobi claimed she was entitled to at least $17,888 in unemployment benefits because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the application, she claimed she was laid off from her company, which was not named in court documents. However, other documents state that she was employed as a human resources manager at the time. Jacobi was arrested in February in Epworth after a grand jury returned an indictment against her. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
