Washington’s Head Of Employment Security Lost Millions To A Nigerian Scammer

President Joe Biden is reportedly assigning the departing head of Washington state’s Employment Security Department, Suzi LeVine, to a federal agency office that assists in processing unemployment claims.

This transition comes during an unemployment fraud scam at LeVine’s state-level department that cost Washington state over $600 million.

The fraudulent claims were believed to have been connected to a massive Nigerian scam ring using stolen identities from prior data breaches, such as the 2017 Equifax breach. There have been over 122,000 fraudulent claims discovered in Washington so far.

According to the Secret Service, Washington was the main target of the scam, though several other states fell victim to the scandal also. California lost over $11 billion in its own unemployment scandal with possibly another $20 billion in losses still being investigated.

LeVine’s new job would put her front and center of President Biden’s economic recovery plan as the interim assistant secretary of the Employment and Training Administration.

It is unknown if LeVine will ever drop the “interim” part of her title, but she must first be confirmed by the Senate to transition into the new permanent role.

Several concerns about LeVine’s record could arise including a state audit faulting the ESD under her for failing to fix a software weakness that led to the massive unemployment fraud.

After announcing the devastating blow to the state’s finances LeVine said that officials were working hard to recover as much of the money as possible and the state had already taken the steps necessary to prevent future fraudulent claims.

“We do have definitive proof that the countermeasures we have put in place are working,” LeVine explained. “We have successfully prevented hundreds of millions of additional dollars from going out to these criminals and prevented thousands of fraudulent claims from being filed.”

The state, working with federal law enforcement and several financial institutions, was able to recover $357 million leaving a net loss of $243 million. Officials will continue their efforts to recover more of the money.qaZ