*Suspended Georgia state Rep. Sharon Henderson has pleaded guilty in federal court to fraudulently obtaining nearly $18,000 in pandemic-era unemployment benefits by making false statements on her application and weekly certifications, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Henderson admitted to making false statements to obtain money administered by the U.S. Department of Labor. The 67-year-old Covington resident is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 3 before U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown.
Prosecutors said Henderson applied for federal pandemic unemployment assistance in June 2020 while she was campaigning for a seat in the Georgia House of Representatives. In her application, she claimed she had recently worked for Henry County Schools and lost her job because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Investigators said those claims were false. Henderson had not worked for the school district for nearly two years and had only served five days as a substitute teacher in 2018. Officials said she also signed paperwork at that time acknowledging substitute teachers were not eligible to receive unemployment benefits.
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According to court records, Henderson falsely claimed she had remained employed by the school system through 2019 and into March 2020, possessed pay stubs supporting that employment and lost work because of pandemic-related closures. Prosecutors also said she submitted fraudulent weekly certifications stating she could not return to work because of a COVID-19 quarantine. Eight of those certifications were filed in June 2021 after she had been sworn in as the representative for Georgia’s District 113.
Federal authorities said Henderson ultimately received $17,811 in unemployment assistance through the fraudulent claims.
“While running for and holding political office, Representative Henderson was fleecing taxpayers, lying to steal money from federal programs intended to help people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a statement.
The case was investigated by the Georgia Office of the State Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General and the FBI. Henderson is the third Georgia state lawmaker this year to plead guilty to federal charges involving fraudulent pandemic unemployment benefits.
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