Former Spokane, Wash. NCAA leader Rachel Dolezal, who made international headlines in 2015 when it was revealed she was a white woman falsely claiming to be black, has been criminally charged on three counts relating to a welfare fraud scheme.
She has been charged with first degree theft by welfare fraud, perjury in the second degree, and false verification for public assistance, after investigators discovered she lied about her income in order to qualify for welfare payments.
Dolezal, who now admits she is biologically white but continues to call herself black, legally changed her name to Nkechi Diallo.
“According to court documents, Diallo illegally received $8,747 in food assistance, and illegally received $100 in childcare assistance. Total restitution, according to the documents, is $8,847, allegedly stolen from August 2015 through November 2017,” Spokane NBC affiliate KHQ reported in breaking the story.
KHQ reports the investigation began in March 2017 when welfare officials learned Diallo has published a book about her life, but had not reported any income or royalties.
Subpoenaed bank records reveal Diallo deposited a total of $83,924 into her bank account between August 2015 and September 2017. In filings for welfare payments during that time Diallo reported her income as less than $500 a month.
Just as she did when confronted about her race claims in 2015, Diallo tried to pretend there was no issue, then refused to answer any further questions.
The State of Washington is seeking restitution for the defrauded payments, and may seek a prison term of up to 15 years.
Several months before being exposed as a race hoaxster, Diallo she told police she was being targeted by white supremacists who were mailing her threatening letters at the Spokane NAACP’s post office box.
A police investigation revealed the letters could not have been mailed, as they had no stamps or postmarks, and only Diallo and the mail carrier had access to the mailbox. No postal employee reported handling or seeing the envelopes, leaving Diallo as the only possible source for the letters.
Diallo was previously employed by Eastern Washington University where, in her online biography, she claimed to have been the victim of “at least eight documented hate crimes [targeting her] and her children during her residency in North Idaho.”
In each case, Diallo was the only witness. Diallo claimed racists painted a swastika on the door of the Human Rights Education Institute at which she worked, but no one witnessed the incident and the group’s security cameras had been turned off. HREI suspected Diallo staged it.
Diallo also claims racists left a noose on her front porch. Again, there were no witnesses. A neighbor recognized the rope as one he had fashioned into a makeshift noose a year earlier to hang up a deer for processing, but the rope had gone missing. Investigators called Diallo to ask about the neighbor’s statement, at which point she did not return their call.
AAN Staff
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