2 indicted for allegedly using “ghost children” to defraud Arizona’s ESA program

PHOENIX (AZFamily) – Two out-of-state residents are facing multiple felony charges after they were indicted for allegedly defrauding Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program.

The ESA program is intended to allow parents in Arizona to use a portion of public education funds to send their students to private or charter schools. ESA vouchers can also be used for homeschooling children.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes says Johnny Lee Bowers and Ashley Meredith Hewitt (aka Ashley Hopkins) were indicted by a state grand jury after they reportedly submitted applications for the ESA program for dozens of children. According to the AG’s office, 43 of the 50 applications were fictitious “ghost children”.

According to the 22-page indictment, Bowers and Hewitt used “false, forged or fraudulent documents,” including birth certificates, utility bills and rental agreements, to advertise themselves under their own names and other fictitious identities. Investigators say they received $110,000 from the ESA program, which they used for personal living expenses in Colorado.

Bowers and Hewitt, who now live in Utah, were charged with one count of conspiracy, one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices of $100,000 or more, and 58 counts of forgery. The full indictment can be found here.

Tom Horne, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, says the Arizona Department of Education (DOE) discovered the alleged fraud and contacted the Attorney General’s Office.

“As a former attorney general of Arizona, I am committed as superintendent to eliminating all fraud within the ESA program,” Horne said in a news release. “When I took office, I hired an auditor who had worked in the comptroller’s office for 15 years and is now responsible for both the ESA program and as an investigator.”

This is not the first case of fraud related to the government’s ESA program. In February, three Phoenix women were indicted on charges of defrauding the state of nearly $130,000 in connection with ESA and AHCCCS programs.

Days later, Mayes announced that five additional people had been charged with alleged criminal conspiracy to defraud the program. Three of the suspects were former DOE employees.

The program also sparked discussions. In September, two Arizona mothers sued the state over how parents can spend school voucher money.

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