Commentary An inspector with San Mateo District Attorney’s (SMDA) office says he was the first in California to uncover the multibillion-dollar unemployment scandal last summer. Jordan Boyd discovered the Employment Development Department (EDD) fraud while monitoring a county jail inmate’s recorded phone call. Boyd told California Insider that he overheard in calls a discussion about a scam that was happening in the community.  The inmate “was talking with other colleagues on the outside and having three-way conversations with others on the street who had successfully filed for unemployment,” he said. The inmate and those in his housing unit then made additional calls to friends and relatives on the outside, providing them with the names, birthdays, and social security numbers of themselves and fellow inmates. This information along with “few checks and balances on EDD’s side,” allowed for claims to be filed on behalf of those incarcerated, leading them to receive thousands in unemployment benefits. The Start of the Investigation The SMDA’s office reported the fraud to EDD and …