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A convicted murderer and former member of the Aryan brotherhood has been arrested in Lake County in an EDD fraud scheme. Michael Lynne Thompson has been arrested for collecting over $383,000 fraudulently from the Economic Development Department, scamming at least 16 victims in the process. Thompson and his co-defendant, Eric Abner Hutchins, are accused of forcing the victims to go online for the money, using inflated numbers to apply for EDD funds. Lake County Prosecutors say the victims, mostly transient and homeless individuals, were never given debit cards or passwords to claim the funds. Instead, Thompson and Hutchins took the funds for themselves. The defendants are also being accused of running a $1.5-million loan scheme in which they claimed to run a wildfire mitigation business.