A Georgia lawmaker has been indicted on federal charges stemming from alleged misuse of a COVID-19-era unemployment program. She resigned just days before she was hit with the fraud charges.
Karen Bennett, a Democrat and now-former state representative from Stone Mountain, was indicted Monday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Federal prosecutors have accused Bennett of making false statements in connection with an application for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a federally funded program created to help workers whose employment was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the indictment obtained by Atlanta News First, Bennett is accused of unlawfully receiving $13,940 after submitting a false benefits application in May 2020. She first applied for regular state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits in April 2020, but officials deemed her ineligible. Eligibility rules required applicants to be denied UI benefits before they could qualify for PUA.
The PUA program was designed to cover workers not typically eligible for standard unemployment benefits—such as self-employed individuals, gig workers, and independent contractors—if their ability to work had been directly impacted by the pandemic.
In her PUA application, Bennett reported that she worked for two employers: The Georgia General Assembly and Metro Therapy Providers Inc., a DeKalb County physical therapy business she owned.
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