July 8, 2021
Whitmer Unemployment Agent Charged With Fraud
Lansing, Mich., July 8, 2021 – Yesterday it was revealed that an employee in Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s unemployment agency was fraudulently collecting multiple unemployment benefits while working for the department. The Detroit News reports:
“A state contract employee claimed to be unemployed and collected unemployment benefits while working at the state Unemployment Insurance Agency, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Autumn Mims also opened bank accounts and processed fraudulent unemployment claims under the names of unsuspecting third parties after she was hired by the agency in August 2020.”
This is not the first time one of Whitmer’s unemployment agents attempted to defraud taxpayers during COVID. Late last month another unemployment agent pleaded guilty to a multi-million dollar scheme to steal COVID relief funds.
Whitmer also faced backlash when she made a hush money payment to her Unemployment Director Steve Gray, in exchange for his resignation and a non-disclosure agreement. MLive reported:
“Michigan’s former Unemployment Insurance Agency Director Steve Gray was given $85,872 in a separation agreement signed in November 2020 to resign. The deal, obtained by MLive, includes a confidentiality clause and requires Gray to ‘release all claims’ against the state.”
This most recent revelation hits Michiganders hard, after Whitmer’s unemployment agency was notoriously incompetent throughout the pandemic, leaving thousands of unemployed Michiganders without the vital unemployment benefits that they were qualified to receive.
“Governor Whitmer’s failed leadership has led to a broken unemployment agency rife with mismanagement, internal corruption, and fraud,” said Eric Ventimiglia, executive director for Michigan Rising Action. Ventimiglia continued, “Michiganders should be disturbed by the clear pattern of corruption within the Whitmer administration, and it deserves further investigation.”