A suspended Georgia lawmaker has pleaded guilty to making false statements that allowed her to collect $17,811 in pandemic unemployment benefits.
Sharon Henderson, 67, claimed that Henry County Schools was her current employer when she applied for emergency federal assistance in June 2020.
In reality, she had not worked for the school district in almost two years.
Her entire employment history with the district consisted of five days as a substitute teacher in 2018, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
When Henderson applied for pandemic unemployment assistance, she identified Henry County Schools as her current employer. Federal prosecutors said she falsely stated that she had worked for the district throughout 2019 and as recently as March 10, 2020.
She also claimed that she possessed paystubs documenting the employment and that the COVID-19 emergency had closed her workplace. Henderson's last work for the school system had occurred in 2018, when she completed five days as a substitute teacher.
The substitute-teacher agreement she signed included an acknowledgment stating that substitute teachers were not eligible to draw unemployment wages, prosecutors said.
Pandemic unemployment applicants were required to provide their recent work history and confirm that COVID-19 was the reason they were unemployed.
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