In Washington state, the unemployment agency has been hindering investigations to the point that a public warning has been issued to the agency's leaders about it from the investigators (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washingto...). The head of this agency recently claimed that $357M of $600M has been recovered. However, it is hard to trust this figure because the agency has already been called out for misstating financial impact (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/sta...).
What's really damning is the level of incompetence. Washington state's unemployment agency went an entire year without standard anti-fraud checks, leaving them broken that entire time. They only fixed it this year, seemingly because this unprecedented level of fraud caught the public's attention. The agency's leader, Suzi LeVine, was picked by Governor Jay Inslee to lead this agency as a "natural fit". But the reality is that it was a nepotistic appointment - LeVine was a Sales and Marketing executive at Expedia and then US ambassador to Switzerland. Her early career work experience at Microsoft was more technical but it was too long ago and too limited to give her "tech credentials". However, she was a prominent DNC fundraiser and donated significantly to Inslee's campaigns (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/how-democ...), so here we are.
What's really damning is the level of incompetence. Washington state's unemployment agency went an entire year without standard anti-fraud checks, leaving them broken that entire time. They only fixed it this year, seemingly because this unprecedented level of fraud caught the public's attention. The agency's leader, Suzi LeVine, was picked by Governor Jay Inslee to lead this agency as a "natural fit". But the reality is that it was a nepotistic appointment - LeVine was a Sales and Marketing executive at Expedia and then US ambassador to Switzerland. Her early career work experience at Microsoft was more technical but it was too long ago and too limited to give her "tech credentials". However, she was a prominent DNC fundraiser and donated significantly to Inslee's campaigns (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/how-democ...), so here we are.