A former Georgia official faked being pregnant so she could take paid maternity leave — but her scheme came apart when a co-worker noticed her baby bump was bogus, officials said.
Robin Folsom, 43, also allegedly made up a fake baby daddy to send an email to her bosses that said she was under doctor’s orders for several weeks of bed rest after giving birth in May 2021, the Georgia Office of the Inspector General announced this week.
The birth-that-wasn’t came two months after a co-worker at the state’s Vocational Rehabilitation Agency allegedly saw part of Folsom’s fake pregnancy stomach “come away” from her body, according to a news release from the IG’s office.
Folsom, director of external affairs for the agency, sent her co-workers photos of her supposed newborn, but they “depicted children with varying skin tones,” the release stated.
The father of her child, Bran Otmembebwe, was a made-up person, but Folsom, when pressed by investigators in October 2021, doubled down and said he really existed, the indictment against her says.
Folsom had informed the agency that she gave birth once before, in July 2020, and got pregnant again in August 2021. But the IG found there were no official records of Folsom having given birth and her insurance records didn’t indicate any pregnancy or delivery. She resigned from her state gig last October after investigators interviewed her as part of the probe into her fake pregnancies, the release said.
“All state employees, and especially those that communicate with the media and general public on behalf on their agency, should be held to the highest standards of integrity and honesty,” IG Scott McAfee said in a statement. “OIG will continue to hold state employees accountable if they choose to deceive their superiors and receive undeserved compensation.”
Folsom was charged with three counts of making false statements and one count of identity fraud after a local grand jury indicted her, state Attorney General Chris Carr announced this week.
“Fraud by state employees will not be tolerated,” Carr said in a statement. “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.”