A state grand jury has indicted two out-of-state residents, Johnny Lee Bowers and Ashley Meredith Hewitt, a.k.a. Ashley Hopkins, after the duo allegedly defrauded Arizona’s school choice program of over $100,000.
According to Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, “The Department of Education submitted this matter to the Attorney General‘s office and submitted all the other matters currently under criminal investigation, except one, which was discovered by a credit union.”
After Horne was elected to the top education office, he hired an auditor who had been in the Auditor General’s office for 15 years, and who is now in charge of the ESA program as well as an investigator.
Those two positions had not existed under Horne’s predecessor, Kathy Hoffman.
Bowers and Hewitt were charged with multiple felony counts including conspiracy, fraud, and forgery.
The duo allegedly submitted applications to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program for children, both real and fictitious, with false, forged, or fraudulent documentation (i.e. birth certificates, utility bills, and/or lease agreements.)
The duo submitted applications for 50 children, 43 of whom did not exist. They applied as parents under their own names as well as under the names of made-up “ghost” parents.
In total, the duo received about $110,000 from the ESA Program and used the money for their own personal living expenses in Colorado.
Hewitt and Bowers now appear to be residing in Utah, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Tom Horne was one of the few wins to come out of the 2022 elections.
Ah, he’s just as big of a fraud as the rest of them. He’s a politician!
Hopefully these overpaid administrators are not being covered by AZ State Retirement. That would be a real scam at 2% per year served of their high 3. No wonder, my retired teacher wife has not received a cost of living increase since 2006.
ASRS doesn’t give COLA, they’re very clear about that and always have been.