Former USC Player Pleads Guilty to Fraudulently Seeking $1 Million In Aid Funds

A former USC linebacker was busted for abusing unemployment funds during the COVID era.

Ex-Trojans player Abdul-Malik McClain, 24, pleaded guilty Monday to charges alleging fraud. He played three seasons for USC, adding a season at Jackson State in 2021.

Abdul-Malik McClain abused California’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, seeking more than $1 million in benefits and securing more than $250,000 in fraudulent funds.

According to LA Magazine, the player was originally charged with 10 counts of mail fraud adding two counts of aggravated identity theft. Abdul-Malik McClain faces a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Krysti Hawkins, acting assistant director for the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, released a statement on the former Trojan’s arrest. Abdul-Malik McClain was first arrested in 2021.

Former USC player busted for fraudulently seeking more than $1 million in unemployment funds. (Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"Mr. McLain squandered his gifts and opportunities only to defraud taxpayers whose hard-earned money was appropriated for deserving victims during the Covid era," Hawkins said. 

"The FBI will continue to work with our partners to identify those who leveraged the COVID pandemic to commit fraud and hold them accountable."

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