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State employee stole $140K in unearned unemployment benefits for friends and family

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63-year-old Vicky Hefner started working as a benefit program specialist for the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations in 2009. That came to an end after it was discovered that she'd swindled the state out of $140,500 in unearned unemployment benefits.

Hefner pleaded guilty on Monday to logging into the accounts of approximately eight of her friends, family and associates and making them eligible for unemployment benefits, or increasing the ones they were eligible for.


She also admitted to backdating some claims to increase benefits and to changing some people's pandemic-related unemployment benefits to regular unemployment benefits.

Hefner is set to be sentenced in June, and could face up to ten years in prison, a $250,000 fine, or both. She'll also be ordered to pay the state the money she stole.

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