The Ohio Inspector General’s office is accusing an employee of improper release of public unemployment assistance benefits, adding up to over $1 million.
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Customer Service Representative Shontiera Barnes is accused of accessing and voiding fraud holds of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
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The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program began to help the increased number of unemployed people during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was the agency in charge of distributing these funds, and the department decided to hire temporary contract workers to handle the increase in claims. The ODJFS distributed around $7.6 billion, and later identified millions of the distributions as fraudulent.
Barnes allegedly released funds to ineligible people, and the investigators found 42 instances of wrongdoing. In 34 of these claims, Barnes is said to have voided holds, ignoring that they lacked proper identification or eligibility documents.
In total, investigators claim that Barnes released $1,164,153.50 to ineligible people.
Investigators also claim that Barnes filed for unemployment assistance and she received $49,302 in improper benefits.
The Ohio Inspector General has passed the investigation on to the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney and the Ohio Auditor of State.
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