Two Colorado residents indicted for defrauding Arizona’s school voucher program have pleaded guilty to a scheme to illegally obtain more than $100,000 in fraudulent reimbursements.
Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that Johnny Bowers pleaded guilty to two felony counts on Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court. His co-defendant, Ashley Hewitt, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one felony charge.
According to the indictment, Bowers and Hewitt used fake birth certificates and other fraudulent documents to submit applications to the voucher program, also called Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, and received a total of $110,258.28 for 50 children, including 43 that did not exist.
“Fraud in the ESA program will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Mayes said. “Those who exploit government systems for personal gain will be held accountable. My office will continue to aggressively prosecute fraud and protect taxpayer dollars.”
Both Bowers and Hewitt are scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 24.
In his own statement, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne credited the Department of Education for referring the Colorado-based scheme to Mayes’ office for prosecution.
“I am committed to doing everything possible to protect taxpayer resources and root out fraud and abuse,” Horne said.
And he accused Gov. Katie Hobbs of torpedoing a budget proposal that would have increased the number of department staff available to review the roughly 1,000 voucher purchases they receive every day. House Republicans included $2 million for additional staff in a budget proposal that failed due to opposition from Hobbs and most Republicans in the state Senate.
