Ohio Inspector General Investigation Finds Former Ohio Department of Job and Family Services’ Contract Employee Fraudulently Released Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Payments

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased unemployment of millions of Americans, Congress passed various programs to address the crisis, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility unemployment requirements for recipients. Consequently, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, received an unprecedented number of unemployment compensation claims. This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire intermittent and temporary contracted workers to process the claims. In fiscal year 2021, ODJFS disbursed approximately $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits and later, ODJFS identified millions of dollars of the disbursals as fraudulent. To address the rampant fraud connected to the PUA program, an investigative group was established that consisted of the Office of the Ohio Inspector General, Ohio State Highway Patrol, United States Department of Labor-Office of Inspector General, and ODJFS.

On June 26, 2025, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General received a referral from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) reporting that former Randstad employee and Harte Hanks subcontractor Princess Bush improperly backdated two PUA claims, one of which was her own personal claim.

Investigators learned that Bush's employment with Randstad as a seasonal teleservices representative started on August 9, 2020, and was terminated effective September 24, 2020. Investigators discovered Bush's login credentials for the ODJFS pandemic unemployment uFACTS system database were not deactivated upon her termination and Bush continued to log in to the system and make changes to PUA claims until December 18, 2020. Bush's actions in two claims resulted in the fraudulent release of a combined total of $38,832 in improper PUA payments, including $16,392 for her own claim.

Investigators also discovered Bush performed multiple unauthorized accesses to the uFACTS database involving 24 other PUA claims after being terminated. Investigators identified six of the 24 claimants Bush improperly accessed were either a relative or known associate, based on their review of open-source intelligence, T-Mobile call log records, and identity verification documents uploaded to the claims. Investigators noted that many of the claimants under review shared the same last name as Bush. Finally, investigators determined that Bush attempted to obtain PUA benefits from 10 other states in addition to Ohio.

The Office of the Ohio Inspector General is referring this report of investigation to the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office and the Ohio Auditor of State for consideration.

Ohio Inspector General Report of Investigation file number 2025-CA00012 is available.