When a co-worker noticed that a portion of Robin Folsom’s pregnant belly was coming away from her body, they believed the former Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency employee was faking her pregnancy, the Office of the State Inspector General said in a news release Monday.
After reporting the birth of two children between July 2020 and May 2021, Folsom was indicted Thursday by a Fulton County grand jury on three counts of felony false statements and one count of felony identity fraud, the office said. The 43-year-old Atlanta resident worked as the Director of External Affairs and supervised GVRA’s marketing and media communications.
In October 2020, Folsom advised the state agency that she was pregnant, the Inspector General’s office said. By May 2021, she announced that she had given birth.
GVRA eventually received an email from a person claiming to be the father of the child, which is what led to Folsom being charged with identity fraud, and stating that the new mother had been mandated several weeks of rest following the delivery, the office said. The state agency approved about seven weeks of paid leave, which the Inspector General’s Office said the agency would not have approved had they known Folsom had not given birth.
An investigation by the Inspector General’s Office revealed that in March 2021, a co-worker noticed a lower portion of Folsom’s stomach coming apart from her body. The co-worker told officials that they believed Folsom was wearing a fake pregnancy stomach.
Folsom also sent pictures of her new baby to various co-workers, but the pictures were inconsistent and the children had varying skin colors, the Inspector General’s Office said.
In October, shortly after an interview with investigators, Folsom resigned from the state agency.
This was not the first pregnancy that Folsom had faked, the office said. In July 2020, she announced the birth of another child. But the office learned that there was no birth certificate proving Folsom to be a mother. Following a review of medical and insurance records, no indication was found that Folsom had ever given birth, the office said.
“Fraud by state employees will not be tolerated,” Attorney General Chris Carr said regarding the indictment. “By working with Georgia’s independent Inspector General, we were able to discover, investigate and put an end to this alleged deception. We will always stand up to protect taxpayer dollars, and we look forward to presenting our case in court.”
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