ATLANTA – Eight former state employees have been indicted on charges of unemployment insurance fraud allegedly committed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The indictments, handed up last week in Fulton County, accuse the eight defendants of filing false unemployment claims with the Georgia Department of Labor while they were working for the state.
“Government employees are entrusted to operate honestly and ethically, and those who do not will be held accountable,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said Thursday. “We will not hesitate to pursue any individual who works for our state and seeks to illegally obtain public funds for their own personal gain.”
The indictments charge James Neville with 19 counts of making false statements and writings, and accuse La-Kira Williams of 14 counts of false statements and writings. The two also are charged with two counts each of violating the state employment security law.
Denise Vance, Divincia Richardson, and Willie Jones are charged with 10 counts each of false statements and writings. Vance is charged with two counts of violating the employment security law, while Richardson and Jones are charged with one count.
Tamika Goodwin is accused of eight counts of false statements and writings. Curesha Blair is charged with five counts of false statements and writings, and Regina Sterling faces three counts of that same offense.
The indictments followed an investigation by the Georgia Office of Inspector General, working with the state labor department and the U.S. Department of Labor.
The attorney general’s Public Integrity and White Collar Crime Unit presented evidence in the case to a Fulton County grand jury, resulting in the indictment.
ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has issued an investor alert warning consumers to watch out for a cryptocurrency scam known as “Pig-butchering.”
The scam, which originated in Southeast Asia, involves a predator building the victim’s confidence through casual conversation that leads to the scammer convincing the victim they will help them make money.
“Pig-butchering” refers to the constant feed of information to the victim as the scammer “fattens” the victim with the illusion of opportunities for a great return on their investment.
“Everyday Georgians, especially retirees, are falling victim to unscrupulous con artists miles and miles away,” Raffensperger said Monday. “We are doing everything in our power to protect the hard-earned savings of good, honest people.”
Scam artists are contacting victims through social media, text messages, email and messaging apps, using publicly available data to target their victims. The scammer may pretend to be an old friend, a trusted public figure, colleague, or even a prospective romantic partner.
The conversation may begin slowly to center around investments or cryptocurrency. The scammer’s goal is not to ask for money but coax the victim to invest in a fake trading website or platform that shows a bogus balance with lots of profit.
Allowing the victim to withdraw profits early creates the illusion of a trusted process. Scammers may even “lend” money to facilitate larger trades.
Once the scammer decides to make his or her move, the website will require more money to cover withdrawal fees or taxes. The scammer then runs off with the funds, never to be heard from again.
Consumers who suspect such a scam may be taking place should immediately stop transferring money to the suspected scammer and report the crime to their bank and local law enforcement agency.
For more information, contact the secretary of state’s office at [email protected] or call 470-312-2640.
ATLANTA – Opponents of a bill the Georgia House of Representatives passed on the next-to-last day of this year’s legislative session are warning it could threaten a fund the state uses to pay unemployment compensation.
Senate Bill 160, which the House’s Republican majority passed 97-68 along party lines, replaces a state Department of Labor administrative fee that expired at the end of last year using money that otherwise would go into Georgia’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund. The Senate passed the measure early last month 34-21, with several Democrats supporting it and one Republican voting “no.”
Supporters said the estimated $20 million the fee would raise during each of the next three years is critical to an agency that has been underfunded for years. The legislation is set to expire at the end of 2026.
The labor department has lost $12 million to $14 million annually since the Great Recession struck Georgia more than a decade ago, funds it has never recovered, said Bruce Thompson, who was elected state commissioner of labor last fall and took office in January.
Then, when the pandemic hit three years ago, a typical annual caseload of 200,000 to 300,000 unemployment claims soared to more than 4 million in one month’s time, Thompson said.
“Customer service is just not where I want it to be,” he said. “We have a federal obligation and a moral obligation to provide these services.”
The bill’s opponents aren’t arguing that the labor department doesn’t need the money. Their beef is that the funds would come from an Unemployment Trust Fund already depleted by the demands of the pandemic.
”UI Trust Fund contributions should not be reduced to compensate for other funding allocations, as this risks the resiliency of a trust fund which already ranks below a majority of states in terms of solvency,” Ray Khalfani, senior worker justice policy analyst for the progressive Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said in a statement March 27 after the House passed the bill.
“The state has more than enough resources on hand to both replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and ensure that the Department of Labor can operate efficiently and at full capacity.”
House Democrats made the same argument during the floor debate on the bill.
“This bill presents a false choice,” said House Minority Whip Sam Park, D-Lawrenceville. “This is a bill that will risk the insolvency of our Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund … as a mechanism to simply do what we should be doing to begin with: investing in our Department of Labor to help workforce development and to help unemployed workers get back on their feet.”
Thompson said the UI Trust Fund is currently only 52% solvent in the wake of the pandemic. Federal pandemic relief didn’t help as it should have because the agency’s previous administration failed to encumber $102 million in federal aid and had to forfeit the money, he said.
But Thompson said other states are facing the same predicament with unemployment funds that have been dramatically reduced by the pandemic.
House Industry and Labor Committee Chairman Bill Werkheiser, R-Glennville, who carried Senate Bill 160 in the House, argued during the floor debate that the alternative to not passing the bill would be to not collect any additional money for the UI Trust Fund. He urged his House colleagues not to panic.
“The sky’s not falling,” he said.
Thompson agreed there’s time to monitor the trust fund and respond accordingly.
“We’ll watch that solvency and see if it goes down,” he said. “If it does, we’ll address it again.”
The bill is now in the hands of Gov. Brian Kemp, who has until early next month to sign it or ax it with a veto.
ATLANTA – A former Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency (GVRA) counselor has been sentenced to five years in prison for creating fake students with non-existent disabilities and illnesses in a scheme to steal more than $1.3 million.
Karen C. Lyke and ex-husband Kevin M. Gregory used the names of friends and relatives to create fake medical records to make it appear that 13 fake students qualified for tuition assistance from the GVRA. They claimed these fake students suffered from disabilities or illnesses including AIDS, cancer, psychosocial impairments, or muscular dystrophy.
Lyke and Gregory then used photo-editing software to alter authentic college transcripts, financial aid reports, and proofs of registration from actual GVRA clients to support claims that the fake students attended schools including Georgia Tech, Georgia State University, or the University of Georgia.
Based on the false documentation, Lyke and Gregory caused more than 230 checks to be mailed to the 13 friends and relatives for bogus educational expenses. In fact, none of the 13 attended any of the claimed colleges or universities.
Lyke and Gregory used the stolen GVRA funds to pay for various personal expenses including cars, jewelry, high-end guitars, and the down payment on a new home.
“The state of Georgia trusted Lyke to serve some of its most vulnerable citizens – Georgians with significant disabilities and illnesses,” U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said Thursday. “Driven by greed more than integrity, Lyke betrayed that trust and masterminded a complex scheme to invent fake students with non-existent disabilities. … Based on her sophisticated conspiracy, Lyke cheated taxpayers out of more than $1.3 million.”
“Lyke abused her trusted counselor position to line her own pockets, and for that she will spend time in prison,” added Keri Farley, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Atlanta office. “This sentencing should serve as a message that the FBI and our partners will not tolerate anyone driven by personal greed to steal American taxpayer money that should be going to those who need it.”
Lyke served as a GVRA counselor in the agency’s Norcross office from 2015 until 2019. After she left the agency, she and Gregory continued to submit forged paperwork to the GVRA for non-existent educational expenses.
The pair also conspired to steal at least seven high-value computers worth about $32,000 from the GVRA. They kept one for personal use and sold at least five on eBay.
Lyke pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to commit federal program theft. Her five-year prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay the stolen money back to the U.S. Department of Education and the GVRA.
Gregory, who also pleaded guilty in October, is scheduled to face sentencing next month.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – More than $170 million in federal investments in affordable housing are heading to Georgia, the Peach State’s two U.S. senators announced Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding will come through five programs: formula-based Community Development Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships to help rehabilitate affordable housing units, Emergency Solutions Grants aimed at the homeless, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, and Housing Trust Fund Grants for affordable housing for low-income residents.
Most of the money – $96.8 million – will go to the state, with the remainder headed to 27 localities across Georgia.
“These robust federal investments in our state’s housing infrastructure will make it more affordable for hardworking Georgians at every income bracket to find better, more cost-effective housing,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. “These investments will help elevate families into the working and middle class.”
The $170 million is in addition to $469,841 in federal pandemic relief funds Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., secured last December to upgrade affordable housing for low-income Georgians in rural communities.
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
