Robin Folsom, the Director of External Affairs at Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency, faked two pregnancies in 2020 and 2021. She was indicted Thursday by a Fulton County grand jury. Folsom is charged with three counts of felony false statements and one count of felony identity fraud. The motives are unclear at the moment, but most likely financial gain is one of them, as she was receiving maternity leave the whole time.
Folsom Is Charged With Three Counts of Felony False Statements and One Count of Identity Fraud
The Georgia Attorney’s Office accuses Folsom of simulating two pregnancies to collect unjustified pay for family medical leave (FMLA). During the course of her fraud, she also constructed a false identity of one “Bran Otmembebwe,” the father of her non-existing children. That added identity fraud to the list of her felonies. Statistics show that identity fraud brought $13 billion in losses in 2020 in the US.
Inconsistencies in Folsom’s Pregnancy Story Were First Noticed by Her Coworkers.
The bizarre story began to unravel in March of 2021 when Folsom’s coworker noticed her stomach was separating from her body on occasions. This sparked an internal investigation in the Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency.
Once the suspicions were confirmed, the case was handed over to OIG. State Inspector General Scott McAfee said that when GVRA first sent them this case, they couldn’t believe it. The investigators questioned Folsom in October, and she stuck to her story. She later resigned from her post at Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency.
However, she couldn’t prove giving birth or that the father’s identity was real. After subpoenaing the hospital records and conducting a thorough investigation, the inspectors couldn’t confirm that the father existed nor that Folsom had ever given birth.
Financial Gain Is One of the Motives but Might Not Be the Only One
As Director of External Affairs at GVRA, Folsom had a salary of $100,000, and the financial gains from her fraud are estimated at $10,000 to $15,000. This is not an amount to risk a well-paid job over. Another motive could be simply a desire not to be in the office since the GVRA was under media investigation for problems in delivering services to clients.
