Delaware agencies say only a small group of lawmakers will see embezzlement probe report

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This story was supported by a statehouse coverage grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Delaware Director of Finance Rick Geisenberger said his department and the Department of Labor still plan to fulfill their promise to update state lawmakers this month on their investigation into a former DOL employee’s theft of taxpayer funds.

To make good on that vow, the agencies must submit their report to the General Assembly within the next week.

WHYY News reported exclusively in May that former unemployment insurance administrator Michael Brittingham stole about $181,000 from the unemployment insurance trust fund last year. He took his own life in April 2023 shortly after he was told he was under investigation.

Lawmakers received letters in June from the DOL, the finance department and the auditor of accounts promising to give lawmakers an accounting of the embezzlement last month. Those letters came after groups like the Delaware Coalition for Open Government (DelCOG) began calling for investigations and hearings into what happened and why it was not made public until it was uncovered in WHYY News’ reporting. WHYY News obtained a copy of the letters, which were not made public by the agencies themselves.

DELCOG spokesperson John Flaherty said the group was planning to ask the U.S. Department of Labor to get involved because of the lack of transparency by Gov. John Carney’s administration about the theft.

“We have a known embezzlement of state funds from a fund that is so screwed up that the auditor says they can’t even audit that fund,” Flaherty said. “There’s a deep abiding interest in the public and making sure that the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is being operated in the public good.”

In the June letters to lawmakers, DOL Secretary Karryl Hubbard and Geisenberger argued that not disclosing embezzlement of taxpayer funds was the right move while acknowledging state lawmakers’ supervisory role.

“We fully understand the General Assembly’s important oversight responsibilities,” the administration leaders said. “We are committed to ensuring that you and your colleagues have accurate information and access to a full accounting of findings and actions to date and our recommended path forward.”

Hubbard and Geisenberger promised the General Assembly it would get “a full accounting of findings and actions to date and our recommended path forward.”

However, Geisenberger told WHYY News the report would only go to the legislative leadership, which consists of five Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and five in the House. He did not respond to a question about why it would not go to all lawmakers if he and Hubbard were committed to making sure all lawmakers had accurate information.

Flaherty said the Carney administration doesn’t get to decide who is entitled to information about the theft of taxpayer funds.

“Members of the Executive Cabinet — the Division of Accounting, Department of Labor — for them to say we’re going to pick and choose who gets to read a public document is outrageous,” he said. “This is a public document, about an incident that affected the public and everybody has the right to observe and monitor the actions of our public officials. That’s in the law.”