#291 - Audit Hits WA State Unemployment Agency For Failures in $600 Million Fraud
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English - December 25, 2020 11:00 - 15 minutes - 11 MB - ★★★★★ - 7 ratingsInvesting Business Entrepreneurship san francisco trending news protests defund the police antifa blm seattle conservative republican journalism Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
The state Employment Security Department (ESD) did not have adequate controls to prevent a slew of illegal unemployment insurance claims last spring that totaled about $600 million and grew into the largest fraud in state history.
The audit provided the first accounting of the circumstances surrounding schemes that targeted Washington state’s unemployment benefits as the coronavirus pandemic was growing.
Key findings include that the “known and suspected” loss resulting from fraud, as of June 30, was about $600 million. This sum covers more than 122,000 known or suspected fraudulent claims. But the state had recovered $250 million by that same time, resulting in an estimated net loss of $350.9 million.
ESD has continued to recover lost funds since the audit was taken and as of Friday has recovered at least $357 million, according to ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine.
Join your host Sean Reynolds, owner of Summit Properties NW and Reynolds & Kline Appraisal as he takes a look at this developing topic.