Report: $47.2M in Fraudulent Unemployment Payments Occurred Under Roy Cooper’s Watch, Including to Illegal Aliens

A North Carolina State Auditor report found tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefit payments were made through North Carolina’s unemployment system during former Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) administration and in the months after he left office, with only a fraction of the money recovered, as Cooper runs for U.S. Senate against Republican Michael Whatley.

The report found that $47.2 million in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments were made by the Office of the Governor through the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Division of Employment Security during the audit period of April 1, 2021, to March 31, 2025. Cooper served as governor from January 2017 to January 2025.

Only $12.1 million was recovered of the $47.2 million in fraudulent payments. The audit also said the improper unemployment insurance payment rate averaged 22 percent, more than double the federal 10 percent threshold and higher than the 18 percent rate found in the previous audit.

The report says improper payments include “any payment to an ineligible recipient.” North Carolina law includes as ineligible an “illegal alien” who is “not in satisfactory immigration status under the laws administered by the United States Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service.” 

The state auditor said Cooper’s “lack of urgency” to “fix the problem” was “concerning.” Cooper’s Division of Employment Security also applied for and received a $6.8 million federal grant to address overpayment issues, but it took three years to implement a work search repository. DES refused to “identify a specific root cause for delayed implementation.” 

The report comes as Cooper is running for U.S. Senate. Breitbart News previously reported that Cooper required attendees at a May 14 campaign event to show ID matching the RSVP list, even as he opposed the SAVE America Act, which would require ID to vote in federal elections. Cooper also vetoed voter ID legislation as governor after a statewide referendum backed the policy, arguing at the time that the measure would create barriers and suppress the rights of minority, poor, and elderly voters.

As governor, Cooper’s administration released roughly 3,500 inmates during the coronavirus pandemic after legal action from the ACLU and NAACP. North Carolina’s Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission found a 48 percent recidivism rate among those released, while the New York Post reported that more than 600 later committed serious felonies and 18 were later charged with murder. Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley argued that Cooper owes North Carolinians an explanation for the releases.