A suspended Georgia state representative admitted in federal court Thursday that she lied to collect nearly $18,000 in pandemic unemployment benefits she had no right to receive.
What happened: 67-year-old Sharon Henderson, a Democrat who held the District 113 seat in the Georgia House, pleaded guilty to making false statements to get money from a federal program set up during COVID-19 to help people who lost their jobs. Her district covers western Newton County and part of Covington.
How the fraud worked: Henderson applied for pandemic unemployment benefits in June 2020, while she was running for the state House seat. She told the program she had been working for Henry County Schools and that the school closed because of COVID-19. She had not worked for the school system in nearly two years. Before that, she had worked just five days as a substitute teacher in 2018 — and when she took that job, she signed paperwork stating that substitute teachers were not eligible for unemployment benefits.
She then filed eight weekly certifications claiming she could not get to work because of a COVID-19 quarantine. She filed those certifications in June 2021, after she had already been sworn in as a state representative. She collected $17,811 she was not entitled to.
She is not alone: Henderson is the third Georgia state lawmaker to plead guilty to this type of fraud. Karen L. Bennett, who represented District 94, pleaded guilty in January to collecting $13,940 in fraudulent pandemic benefits. Dexter L. Sharper, who represented District 177, pleaded guilty in March to collecting $13,825.
What’s next: Henderson is set to be sentenced November 3 before U.S. District Judge Michael L. Brown.
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
- B.T. Clark
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