DOJ: Child support scheme was an inside job

SALEM, Ore. - An Oregon Department of Justice employee and her fiance are accused of ripping off single parents in a child support payment scheme that happened right under the nose of Oregon's Attorney General.

It is a serious incident and serious money for families who rely on child support to survive - and it all took place on the second floor of the Department of Justice building in Salem.

"Someone with inside information was able to find a vulnerability and exploit it," said Stephanie Soden, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Justice.

That person, said Soden, was an accountant in the Administrative Services Division whose job was to find people who have unclaimed child support coming to them.

Victims like Sarah Smith, who lost over $3,000, were shocked to learn who was taking the money.  Another woman lost $7,000.

"They have my social security number. They have all my information and all of this other person's information," said Smith.

"This is ID theft," said Soden.

Oregon State Police began an investigation and the evidence pointed to the accountant, Cynthia Woodard, and her fiance, Glen Huiett.

KATU knocked on the couple's door at their home in Keizer but no one was home.  However, we did leave a business card and soon got a call, the first of many.

During the calls, we asked them point blank how they took the money and surprisingly, they told us how it all worked.

They said they had phony accounts set up at an abandoned home (located just down the street from their house) and that all correspondence from the bank was sent to that home's mailbox.

A neighbor who lives across the street suspected something was going on at the abandoned home.

"I was always wondering because that mailbox was open all of the time," he said.

He was really surprised when we showed him surveillance photos of Huiett withdrawing some of the child support money from ATMs.

"Yeah, that's him," he said. "Yeah, I'm shocked."

Huiett and Woodard told KATU in separate phone interviews that they took the money through an elaborate ID theft scheme online. 

They said Woodard noticed unclaimed payments in child support accounts from her office in the Department of Justice building and both agreed that no one would miss the money.

Woodard then set up U.S. Bank ReliaCard debit accounts in the names of the victims and had all the debit cards and correspondence sent to the abandoned home down the street from their house.

Huiett then withdrew the money at ATMs.

"You're supposed to be able to trust these people," said Smith.  "They are supposed to be looking out for you and your children's interests, not ripping you off."

So what has the Department of Justice done since learning about the thefts?

Prior to the thefts, it only took one person to set up and transfer child support payments into a ReliaCard account.  Now, at least three people in Child Support Services, including an administrator, have to sign off on new ReliaCard accounts.

"We're confident this cannot happen again and that it was an isolated incident," said Soden.

Detectives recovered a file with Smith's personal information in it from Woodard's office.  Woodard admitted that the file had the names and personal information of dozens of people who are owed unclaimed child support.

Huiett and Woodard have not been formally charged with crimes but a grand jury has interviewed victims and witnesses.  Woodard no longer works at the Department of Justice.