{"id":1797250,"date":"2023-01-06T09:35:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T14:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1797250"},"modified":"2023-01-06T09:35:17","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T14:35:17","slug":"georgia-audit-alleges-state-employees-stole-over-6-7-million-in-unemployment-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-audit-alleges-state-employees-stole-over-6-7-million-in-unemployment-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Audit Alleges State Employees Stole Over $6.7 Million in Unemployment Benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgeorgia-audit-alleges-state-employees-stole-over-6-7-million-in-unemployment-benefits%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1797250&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.rebelmouse.io\/eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8zMjYzMDk4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTcwMzEzOTAwM30.Bbnwpd2toVHTgqaLnW6nlHlBtSZYVXycRovwiz9OsJ4\/img.jpg?width=1200&#038;height=600&#038;coordinates=0%2C16%2C0%2C64\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>A recent Georgia audit revealed that nearly 300 full-time state employees may have fraudulently collected unemployment benefits in 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n<p>WSB-TV Investigator Justin Gray broke the story on Wednesday morning after Georgia inspector general Scott McAfee sent a <a href=\"https:\/\/oig.georgia.gov\/press-releases\/2023-01-04\/oig-publishes-open-letter-regarding-ui-fraud-state-government\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> to Governor Brian Kemp (R), warning that an internal investigation uncovered that at least 280 state employees were suspected of stealing more than $6.7 million in unemployment benefits. <\/p>\n<p>The employees are accused of applying for and collecting benefits while still employed by the state of Georgia. <\/p>\n<p>McAfee\u2019s letter claimed that the investigation only included full-time employees still employed with the state. He noted that the reported number of alleged fraud cases was a \u201cconservative estimate,\u201d considering the investigation did not include part-time employees, those no longer employed by the state, or those who received less than $1,000 in unemployment benefits. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese payments averaged $24,700 per employee and totaled over $6.7 million. And this is a conservative estimate,\u201d the letter stated.<\/p>\n<p>According to McAfee, the Office of the State Inspector General interviewed approximately 24 full-time state workers accused of fraudulently applying for unemployment benefits. As a result, \u201cnearly all\u201d were fired. <\/p>\n<p>One of those employees included a Georgia Department of Labor unemployment insurance claims examiner who allegedly collected $31,220 in benefits. The letter stated that the employee repeatedly updated a fraudulent unemployment insurance account while working full-time with the GDOL.<\/p>\n<p>The cases have been turned over to the Office of the Attorney General\u2019s Prosecution Division. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s shameful, in my opinion,\u201d Georgia Labor Commissioner-Elect Bruce Thompson told WSB-TV. \u201cThe fact that we have state employees committing fraudulent acts while we have other people who can\u2019t get payments due to them, that\u2019s a big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you willfully do that, we should prosecute to the fullest, especially if you are a state employee,\u201d Thompson added.<\/p>\n<p>According to the inspector general, the Department of Labor refused to cooperate with the IG\u2019s requests for information. <\/p>\n<p>As a result of the alleged hindered investigation, McAfee\u2019s letter requested that the General Assembly pass legislation allowing the Office of the State Inspector General administrative subpoena authority. <\/p>\n<p>DOL Commissioner Mark Butler denied the accusation made against his department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey wanted a lot of personal information about state employees that we could not legally hand over to them, especially not based upon a fishing expedition,\u201d Butler told WSB-TV. \u201cIt was not legally permissible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McAfee suggested to Kemp that the state extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting pandemic-related fraud to provide adequate time to investigate the remaining cases. To crack down on future theft, the IG also recommended quarterly checks to ensure state employees have not submitted fraudulent applications.<\/p>\n<p class=\"shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube\"><span class=\"rm-shortcode\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"c5a509944f77425378c6d9e602bcc0c8\">[embedded content]<\/span><small class=\"image-media media-caption\">Nearly 300 Georgia state employees collected unemployment on the job, audit claims<\/small><small class=\"image-media media-photo-credit\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/E06Uq7DWzHA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">youtu.be<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent Georgia audit revealed that nearly 300 full-time state employees may have fraudulently collected unemployment benefits in 2020 and 2021. WSB-TV Investigator Justin Gray broke the story on Wednesday morning after Georgia inspector general Scott McAfee sent a letter to Governor Brian Kemp (R), warning that an internal investigation uncovered that at least 280 &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1797253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[13645,6872,4261,4848,5458,5183,4977,3819,7755,4846],"class_list":["post-1797250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-6-7","tag-alleges","tag-audit","tag-benefits","tag-bongino","tag-employees","tag-georgia","tag-report","tag-stole","tag-unemployment"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1797250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1797250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1797253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1797250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1797250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1797250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}