California officials said Tuesday that around 35,000 unemployment claims had been fraudulently made on behalf of prison inmates between March and August.

Sacramento County district attorney described the scheme as one of the biggest frauds of taxpayer dollars in the state's history.

The prosecutors said the state has paid out at least $140 million in benefits, and around 158 claims had been filed for 133 inmates on death row.

The fraudulent claims even included convicted murderer Scott Peterson, according to a CBS News report.

Prosecutors were tipped off in some cases by listening on recorded phone calls from prison as inmates bragged about how they were gaming the system to claim unemployment benefits.

Prosecutors led by Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said the problem was aggravated by dysfunction at the California Employment Development Department.

They noted that the department does not check unemployment claims against a list of prison inmates, as practiced by many other states. Schubert said the inmates are mocking them.

Prosecutors said someone had filed unemployment claims in the names of these prisoners, including Peterson.

Peterson was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing his pregnant wife. However, the California Supreme Court recently overturned his death sentence and ordered a lower court to review his murder conviction to determine if he should receive a new trial.

Susan Eubanks was also included in the list. Eubanks was a San Diego woman jailed for shooting her four sons to death in 1997. Claims had also been filed in the names of other convicted murderers like Isauro Aguirre, Cary Stayner, and Wesley Shermantine.

Aguirre was sentenced to death for the murder of eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez back in 2013 in Los Angeles.

Stayner was convicted of killing four people in Yosemite National Park in 1999, while Shermantine was part of the duo who dubbed themselves as the Speed Freak Killers known for their meth-induced killing spree in the 1980s and '90s.

Prosecutors discovered the fraud when they listened to inmates' phone calls, talking about how easy it was to get paid. They said the scheme always involved someone outside in facilitating the applications.

Only one address was used to receive the benefits for 16 inmates in Kern County, which is home to five state prisons.

Some inmates used their real names, while others used fake names and even fake Social Security numbers. One inmate even used a fake name, "poopy britches," according to Schubert.

Prosecutors refused to give more details about the unemployment claim associated with Peterson since there's still an ongoing investigation.

Peterson's attorney, Pat Harris, did not respond to a request for comment from the Associated Press, as reported by CBS News.

The fraud was so rampant that prosecutors said they already wrote a letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, asking him to personally interferes.

Newsom released a statement on Tuesday, saying that more is needed to be done, as Fox News reported.

Newsom said that when they saw the proof of fraud in correctional facilities, he directed the Employment Department to review its practices.

"Take immediate actions to prevent fraud and to hold people accountable when fraud is not prevented," Newsom said in a Fox News report.

El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said Newsom has already asked Mark Ghilarducci to intervene. Ghilarducci was the director of the Governor's Office of Emergency Services.