Gov. names Feek as Employment Security Department head

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Gov. Jay Inslee has named Cami Feek as commissioner of the state’s Employment Security Department, which temporarily suspended unemployment benefit payments after discovering that criminals had used stolen Social Security numbers to file fraudulent claims. Inslee named Feek commissioner on Wednesday. She has been acting commissioner since February when former Commissioner Suzi LeVine left to work for the Biden administration. In 2020, officials disclosed that $650 million had likely been stolen in a fraud scheme that law enforcement officials said was partly based in Nigeria. Nigerian citizen Abidemi Rufai was arrested in May and is accused of stealing over $350,000 in unemployment benefits. His lawyer has said Rufai “denies any involvement in these transactions.”