(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A federal grand jury on Monday indicted a Georgia Democratic lawmaker over allegations she committed COVID-19 relief fraud, marking the second left-wing politician charged with similar crimes. As alleged in the indictment, Sharon Henderson, who represents Georgia’s 113th district in the state House of Representatives, stole government funds intended to help Americans in need by filing false unemployment claims.
Henderson allegedly received unemployment benefits after submitting paperwork to the government in which she claimed her employer, the Henry County Schools, had closed because of the pandemic.
In reality, Henderson only worked for the Henry County Schools as a substitute for five days in 2018, which is two years before the pandemic began.
Charging documents reviewed by Headline USA stated that Henderson began filing the paperwork in June 2020 while she was running for the Georgia House seat.
Prosecutors alleged she continued submitting weekly certifications through June 2021, affirming in at least eight applications that she remained unemployed.
Notably, Henderson was sworn into office on Jan. 11, 2021, months before she stopped filing the unemployment claims.
The lawmaker, who pleaded not guilty on Monday, reportedly collected $17,811 in pandemic-related unemployment benefits.
The Trump-led DOJ said the charges stemmed from the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, which investigates abuse of pandemic-related government benefit programs.
Prosecutors said that Henderson was able to receive the benefits due to loosened federal legislation that allowed Americans to receive weekly benefits if their jobs were shut down during the pandemic.
The indictment comes just one week after prosecutors in Florida secured a separate grand jury indictment against U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democrat accused of receiving $5 million in FEMA overpayments after a company she previously ran contracted with the federally funded Florida program to promote COVID-19 vaccines. She was originally owed just $57,000.
Read Full Article: https://headlineusa.com/yet-another-democrat-indicted-for-covid-relief-fraud/
