Report Reveals Possible Fraud at Major County Agency – Statement from Reagan Dunn

August 26, 2025

Councilmember Reagan Dunn is issuing the following statement concerning today’s release of a new report that exposed serious failures of oversight—and even potential fraud—at King County’s Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS). This blistering report—first requested by Dunn in 2023—was released by the King County Auditor earlier today.

“I am demanding immediate accountability and introducing legislation to put an end to this reckless spending,” said Dunn. “Every single dollar must be tracked, verified, and spent responsibly — not lost to fraud and abuse. The people of King County deserve so much better.”

The Auditor’s report paints a troubling picture. As DCHS’s contracting budget rapidly expanded from just $22 million in 2019 to more than $1.5 billion in 2023 and 2024, the department failed to keep pace with basic safeguards. While nearly half of all organizations receiving county money in 2024 were flagged as “high risk,” monitoring remained lax.

Investigators uncovered improper payments and likely fraud — including cases where grantees altered invoices to inflate reimbursement requests, documentation was allegedly falsified, and the distribution of prepaid debit cards and thousands of dollars in stipends occurred with little or no tracking.

In some cases, subcontractors were even paid hundreds of thousands of dollars outside the scope of their approved contracts. You can read the full report here.