Unemployment Worker Charged With Illegally Taking Benefits

ST. CLOUD -- Criminal charges have been filed against a Clearwater woman who is accused of illegally collecting unemployment benefits for her husband while she worked for a state agency that handles unemployment claims.

Thirty-six-year-old Kati Werner is charged with two counts of theft-by swindle. Court records show she accessed her husband's account and requested unemployment benefits while he was employed.

Werner was working at the Unemployment Insurance Call Center in St. Cloud at the time and would have had knowledge of the system because her job was to assist customers with claims.  A Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development spokesman says she is no longer employed by the agency.

Werner is accused of submitting the unemployment requests between February 2015 and April 2015 and between November 2015 through April 2016. Records show a total of $5,400 in overpayments were submitted by Werner through her husband's account in those timeframes.

Werner's husband told investigators he didn't know why she would request benefits during the weeks he was working and that she would know if he was working or not.

Werner has her next court hearing January 22nd.