‘Impersonating a deceased person’: Carnation man sentenced for identity theft, pandemic benefits fraud

A 36-year-old Carnation man was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for wire fraud, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft for two separate schemes to steal pandemic unemployment benefits and steal the home, bank assets, and stock portfolio of a dead victim.

Tyler Lee Berens conducted two fraud schemes between 2020 and 2024. He pleaded guilty in July, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Berens submitted false claims for pandemic unemployment benefits in 19 different states, receiving a total of $148,206 from six of the states: Washington, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, and Rhode Island.

Berens also applied for and was approved for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $17,500. The DOJ noted Berens’ PPP application was false, and no loan funds were paid out.

Second fraud scheme targeted deceased victim’s home and financial accounts

Berens then launched his second fraud scheme two years later, targeting the Seattle home, bank accounts, and stock portfolio of a dead elderly victim. Berens posed as the victim’s authorized agent, impersonating the victim and using the victim’s personal information.

Berens made several attempts to steal more than $500,000 worth of the victim’s assets.

Berens sent a real estate agent a forged power of attorney document and claimed that he had the victim’s authorization to sell the home. He then accepted an offer for the home, but the victim’s niece was alerted, intervened, and reported the attempted fraud.

The DOJ noted that Berens was “not deterred” after he was caught in the real estate fraud. He later accessed the victim’s bank accounts in an attempt to transfer money from them and obtained a debit card for the victim’s checking account.

Once fraud restrictions were put on the accounts, Berens attempted to remove them by impersonating the dead victim over email.

Berens eventually took over the victim’s brokerage account and attempted to transfer money to himself and liquidate more than $235,000 worth of stocks.

Fraud restrictions blocked the attempted transactions and removed Berens’ access, though he continued to impersonate the dead victim and tried to regain control of the accounts.

In asking for the three-year prison sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court: “The $148,206.00 that went into Berens’ pocket was money siphoned away from people and businesses in desperate need of assistance during the pandemic. He deliberately exploited vulnerabilities in the government’s controls during an unprecedented and devastating period for his personal gain. As a result of his and similar schemes, the government continues to expend an inordinate amount of resources investigating and prosecuting COVID-19-related fraud.”

In August 2025, Berens was indicted and later pleaded guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and access device fraud on July 2.

“For years, Mr. Berens sought to profit through a variety of schemes, taking advantage of pandemic-era assistance programs to receive benefits to which he was not entitled from six states, and also impersonating a deceased person to steal their assets,” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office.

Berens will be on three years of supervised release following prison and has been ordered to pay $148,706 in restitution.

The complete list of 19 states for which Berens submitted false claims for unemployment benefits includes: Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Nevada, Kansas, South Dakota, California, Utah, Vermont, Alabama, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Indiana, and Delaware.

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