Lexington doctor falls victim to unemployment fraud

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) – Thousands of Kentuckians have struggled this past year to get their unemployment benefits after losing their jobs in the pandemic. But a Lexington doctor has been fighting the labor cabinet over a claim he says he never filed because he never lost his job.

Dr. Aaron Hesselson was being told he had to pay back money he never even received, or face a lien on his property.

He first learned back in January from his employer that someone had filed a fraudulent umemployment claim in his name.

“Subsequent to that is when I received the first letter in the mail saying now that the university had put a hold on the unemployment with the labor cabinet there has been a ruling and they wish the money returned. Money which I have never been given,” Dr. Hesselson said.

Dr. Hesselson says for weeks he was getting mixed responses from the labor cabinet since the fraudulent claim was flagged by his employer. He has gotten this one in March that says “thank you for contacting the Kentucky Office of Unemployment Insurance so quickly concerning the fraudulent claim filed using your personal information.” It was followed by notices demanding he reimburse for overpayments. Now, he’s calling attention for what he says is a broken system.

“The first step is to understand how is the process broken. How did this get approved to begin with? Is it somebody from the outside? If there’s no documentation showing how this was obtained, that’s concerning given some nefarious activities that have happened,” Dr. Hesselson said.

He said he had an appeals hearing regarding the notice to pay back the state. That was on May 17. He hadn’t heard anything else except for this final notice dated May 18 saying he had until June 7 to pay up, or face a recoupment lien.

“If an individual or individuals is claiming fraud, then there should hopefully be a process that says, ‘okay stop. We are not going to want the money back with an x amount of time. That should be on hold until something can be adjudicated,’” Dr. Hesselson said.

About four hours after WKYT’s Chad Hedrick’s interview with Dr. Hesselson, he said he got a call from a case worker helping resolve the issue. He says he hopes his story encourages others facing a similar situation to advocate for themselves and their money.

Dr. Hesselson says the case worker told him that others facing the same issue should contact the attorney general’s office.

We reached out to the labor cabinet for a comment, but we have not gotten a response yet.