Former Georgia state lawmaker pleads guilty to pandemic fraud

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A former state lawmaker pleaded guilty on Wednesday to pandemic-related fraud.

Earlier this year, Karen Bennett, a Democrat from Stone Mountain, was federally charged with making false statements in connection with an application for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits in May 2020.

Bennett was accused of collecting $13,940 under the program, which was created to provide federally funded unemployment-related benefits to those whose jobs were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic but ineligible for regular unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, including self-employed, gig workers and 1099 independent contractors.

Bennett represented House District 94, which covers parts of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties, from 2012 until she retired from the legislature on Jan. 1, 2026.

Also on Wednesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger set a March 10, 2026, special election to fill Bennett’s seat in the heavily blue district.

Important dates for voters in Georgia’s 2026 elections

Bennett’s case is being prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

“Bennett was elected to represent her fellow citizens and took a solemn oath to promote the best interests and prosperity of the state of Georgia,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said. “Instead, she violated that oath and, during an unprecedented emergency, lied to line her own pockets with taxpayer money intended to help community members in need.”

Bennett applied for and submitted weekly certifications to claim pandemic unemployment assistance benefits for weeks in March through August 2020. In those forms, she claimed her only earnings were $300 per week from the Georgia General Assembly and that her other employer, Metro Therapy Providers, Inc., would not let her return to her office due to COVID-19 protocols.

But prosecutors said Bennett was concealing the fact that she was also receiving a steady paycheck of $905 every week from her employment at a church.

Additionally, she was the sole owner of Metro Therapy Providers, Inc., and her work for that company consisted of administrative functions she performed from her home, even prior to the pandemic.

As a result of the false statements in her application and weekly certifications, Bennett collected $13,940 of pandemic unemployment benefits to which she was not entitled.

Sentencing for Bennett is scheduled for April 15, 2026.

ORIGINAL COVERAGE: Former Georgia state representative charged with alleged pandemic fraud

Bennett is the second Democratic state lawmaker to be indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to pandemic unemployment fraud. In December 2025, state Rep. Sharon Henderson, D-Covington, was indicted on two counts of theft of government funds and 10 counts of making false statements.

Henderson has pleaded not guilty.

Court documents state that in 2020, while a candidate for the seat, Henderson applied for federal pandemic unemployment benefits and claimed Henry County Schools as her employer.

The U.S. attorney’s office said Henderson claimed she worked for the school district through March 2020, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She was a substitute teacher in 2018 for five days, but “she had not worked for Henry County Schools since then,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

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