Report: Louisiana gave $152K in unemployment to fake claims during COVID

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- An audit found that the Louisiana Workforce Commission (LWC) issued COVID-19 pandemic unemployment benefits for 49 separate claims that are believed to be fake.

Unemployment benefits totaling $151,907 were issued between May 15, 2020, and October 14, 2020, according to the audit.

"The majority of the claimants’ names and Social Security numbers did not correspond to a Louisiana driver’s license/identification card, and no Louisiana wages had been reported for the majority of these claimants," the audit said.

Claimants allegedly used the same or similar mailing addresses and LWC accounts were found to be logged in from the same IP address. The audit said 43 LWC accounts were logged in "within minutes of each other from the same IP address."