The National Archives reported Sunday (Jan. 31) that Suzan LeVine, the outgoing head of the Washington State Department of Employment Security, failed to fix a software vulnerability that led to Nigerian fraudsters stealing $600 million from the Washington State Department of Employment Security. However, Biden has appointed LeVine, as interim assistant secretary of the federal Employment and Training Administration (ETA), to assist states in processing unemployment claims. This temporary appointment makes Levin a key figure in Biden’s economic recovery plan.
The Employment and Training Administration is part of the U.S. Department of Labor and has an annual budget of about $9 billion, nearly 75 percent of the total Labor Department budget. The Employment and Training Administration will play a key role in increasing labor market employment as the U.S. economy has shrunk by more than 10 million jobs since the outbreak.
It is unclear whether Levin will relinquish her “temporary” title, but to transition to a permanent position, she must be confirmed by the Senate. Her record in Washington state, however, is likely to raise questions.
According to the Seattle Times, a recent Washington state audit noted that the Washington State Department of Employment Security, under Levin’s leadership, failed to fix a software bug that led to more than 122,000 fraudulent unemployment claims last spring, resulting in $600 million in losses. State Auditor Pat McCarthy (Pat McCarthy) also blamed Levin for the delay in providing information about the fraud to the auditor’s office.
The US Secret Service, the federal entity in charge of investigating the fraud, said in a published statement that Washington state was the main target of the unemployment benefits fraud scandal, that other states were also affected, and that California had its own unemployment scandal of $11 billion, while another $20 billion in possible losses is still under investigation.
The Seattle Times tweeted, “Former Microsoft executive Susan Levin, a longtime fundraiser for Washington state Democrats, is in the “hot seat” because of fraud and back pay for workers at the Washington jobs department she led. “Here’s another person who says they haven’t received unemployment benefits in 10 weeks. Officials with the Washington State Department of Employment Security acknowledged failing to verify claims with recipients before payment because of the elimination of the waiting week between application and payment of benefits. The change was proposed by Gov. Jay Inslee.
The fraudulent unemployment claims are believed to be linked to a well-organized Nigerian fraud ring that uses identity information stolen from previous data breaches, such as the massive 2017 breach at Equifax. 2017 Equifax, one of the three major U.S. credit rating agencies, disclosed in a press release that the agency’s network was hacked and user names, birth dates, social security numbers, addresses and some driver’s license numbers were compromised. 209,000 U.S. credit card numbers were exposed, and the names and some driver’s license information of an additional 2.4 million U.S. consumers were later discovered to have been stolen.
Federal law enforcement and financial institutions across the U.S. worked together to allow Washington State to recover $357 million in losses, for a net loss of $243 million, and efforts are underway to recover additional funds.
Levin and her husband, Eric, donated $400,000 to the Biden campaign and other Democratic candidates in 2019 and 2020, according to federal campaign records.
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