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Man, woman accused of submitting school voucher applications for 'ghost children': Arizona AG

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Updated  December 2, 2024 12:24pm MST
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 10 Phoenix

2 accused of defrauding AZ school voucher program

A grand jury has indicted two people for allegedly defrauding Arizona's Empowerment Scholarship Account program, also known as the ESA. The two suspects live out-of-state.

The Brief

    • A grand jury in Arizona has indicted two out-of-state residents for conspiracy, fraud, and forgery.
    • The two are accused of submitting school voucher applications for 43 children who did not exist.
    • Officials allege the suspect received about $110,000 from the Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program, and used the money for their personal living expenses.

PHOENIX - Officials with the Arizona Attorney General's Office said on Dec. 2 that a man and a woman from outside of Arizona have been indicted amid allegations involving the state's school voucher program.

Per the statement, Johnny Lee Bowers and Ashley Meredith Hewitt are accused of submitting applications to Arizcona's Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) programs for both real and fictitious children. 

"They submitted applications for 50 children, 43 of whom did not exist. They applied as parents under their own names as well as under the names of made-up "ghost" parents," read a portion of the statement.

Investigators say the two appear to be living in Utah now, but allege they "received about $110,000 from the ESA Program and used the money for their own personal living expenses in Colorado."

According to court documents released by the Attorney General's Office, Bowers and Hewitt, who also goes by the name 'Ashley Hopkins,' are accused of a count of conspiracy, a count of fraudulent schemes and artifices, and 58 counts of forgery.

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has issued a statement on the indictments. It reads:

"The Department of Education submitted this matter to the Attorney General‘s office and submitted all the other matters currently under criminal investigation, except one, which was discovered by a credit union.

As a former Arizona Attorney General, I am determined as Superintendent to eliminate any fraud within the ESA program. Upon taking office, I hired an auditor who had been in the Auditor General’s office for 15 years, and who is now in charge of the ESA program as well as an investigator. Those two positions had not existed under my predecessor.

I am pleased that prosecutions are following in the cases we sent to The Attorney General’s office."

The Source

  • Information for this article was gathered from statements issued by the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Arizona Department of Education.