{"id":240897,"date":"2026-01-06T16:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=240897"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:41:16","slug":"another-georgia-lawmaker-charged-with-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/?p=240897","title":{"rendered":"Another Georgia Lawmaker Charged With Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-yoast-seo-ai-summarize yoast-ai-summarize\"><h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list yoast-ai-summarize-list\">\n<li>Karen Bennett, a former Georgia lawmaker, faces federal indictment for alleged fraud related to COVID-19 assistance.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bennett pleaded not guilty to falsely claiming $13,940 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Prosecutors allege she misrepresented her ability to work while quarantined, claiming she couldn&#8217;t operate her business.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Bennett was released on a $10,000 bond, following her not guilty plea.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Another lawmaker, Sharon Henderson, also pleaded not guilty to theft related to COVID-19 relief, and was similarly released on a $10,000 bond.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Former state Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, became the second Georgia lawmaker to be indicted in federal court in the past month over alleged fraud concerning COVID-19 federal assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bennett, who resigned her seat effective Dec. 31, pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations by federal prosecutors that she made false statements in writing to obtain $13,940 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bennett allegedly claimed she could not operate her physical therapy business while quarantined at home, but prosecutors allege her role was administrative and that she could work from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, Theodore S. Hertzberg, filed a false statements charge against Bennett Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A judge released her on a $10,000 bond after she pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, pleaded not guilty Dec. 8 to theft of government funds in connection with COVID-19 relief, and was also released on a $10,000 bond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Henderson was still listed as a state representative on the Georgia General Assembly website as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This article is available through a partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Association&#8217;s nonprofit, tax-exempt Educational Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former state Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain, became the second Georgia lawmaker to be indicted in federal court in the past month over alleged fraud concerning COVID-19 federal assistance. Bennett, who resigned her seat effective Dec. 31, pleaded not guilty Monday to allegations by federal prosecutors that she made false statements in writing to obtain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":948,"featured_media":240899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[20082,8978],"class_list":["post-240897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-karen-bennett","tag-legislature","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/948"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegeorgiasun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}