Search

A Washington state tech executive was sentenced today in the Western District of Washington to two years in prison for perpetrating a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 disaster relief loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Seattle – A Washington State man was sentenced today to two years in prison for perpetrating a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 disaster relief

A Washington State man was sentenced today to two years in prison for perpetrating a scheme to fraudulently obtain COVID-19 disaster relief loans guaranteed by the Small Business Administration (SBA) through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The COVID-19 pandemic had wide-ranging impacts within King County. County leaders and staff worked hard to shift practices to meet the needs of the changing environment. Our analysis and survey results indicate that employee experience and confidence in safety measures varied across the county, potentially indicating increased exposure risk for some employees.

The objective of the audit was to determine whether the use of Public Health Emergency Leave aligned with Port policy. In order to achieve this objective, Internal Audit utilized a risk-based approach, selected a sample of individuals who took Public Health Emergency Leave.

This report is the second in a series of savings-focused best practice reviews to be conducted by the Auditor’s Office. We conducted this analysis to illustrate some of the potential furlough options policymakers have when making decisions about how to reduce the County’s costs. Individual departments could also implement these types of furlough structures for their employees. We are not making recommendations at this time.

State management is responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining internal controls to ensure the financial statements are fairly presented, and to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and to prevent and detect fraud. We identified deficiencies in internal controls at the Employment Security Department (ESD) that adversely affected the State’s ability to prevent and detect fraud.

This report contains the results of our investigation of the illegitimate unemployment claims and payments at the Department from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020. The purpose of our investigation was to determine if a misappropriation had occurred and to provide the Department with recommendations to improve internal controls.

The novel coronavirus quickly became a global pandemic in 2020. In March 2020, Congress passed the CARES Act to help provide support for those affected by the pandemic. Washington’s Employment Security Department administers the state’s unemployment compensation program. From early in the pandemic, news organizations reported on customer service delays and fraud in Washington’s Unemployment Insurance program. Th is audit examines the scope of and reasons behind substantial fraud and customer service delays in the state’s unemployment benefits program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on our risk assessment for the years ended June 30, 2020, 2019 and 2018, the areas examined were those representing the highest risk of fraud, loss, abuse, or noncompliance. We examined the following areas during this audit period. Accounts payable – general disbursements and electronic funds transfers, Payroll – gross wages and overtime, Paid family and medical leave – billing and compliance with eligibility, Procurement – information technology contracts and change orders.