Rachel Dolezal Charged With Welfare Fraud

Rachel Dolezal, the former NAACP Spokane, Washington chapter president who was revealed to be a white woman living as an African American, now faces felony welfare charges.

On Thursday, KHQ-TV reported that Dolezal was accused of "1st Degree Theft by Welfare Fraud, Perjury in the 2nd Degree, and False Verification for Public Assistance." She could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

Dolezal is referred to be her new legal name, Nkechi Diallo, in the court documents. The 40-year-old allegedly received $8,747 in food assistance and $100 in childcare assistance. In total, she is accused of receiving $8,847 in illegal assistance.

According to KHQ, the investigation into the alleged theft started in March 2017. A Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Office of Fraud and Accountability investigator learned that Dolezal got a book published, even though she was taking welfare assistance. The average publishing contract included payments between $10,000 to $20,000.

The investigator looked over her records, and found she was reporting her income as less than $500 a month in child support payments. When she was asked to provide evidence on how she pays her bills, she once reported, "Barely! With help from friends and gifts," according to the court documents.

But a subpoena of her self-employment records and bank statements dating back to 2015, show she deposited $83,924 over several installments from August 2015 ro September 2017. She never reported the income to officials.

Dolezal did tell DHSH of a "change of circumstance" after earning $20,000 in October 2017 and she did voluntarily speak with investigators in April. However, she claimed to not understand what "discrepancies" the investigators were talking about and claimed she did not have to answer any more questions.

In 2015, Dolezal was the president of the Spokane NAACP chapter but resigned after questions arose about the alleged hate crimes she claimed to have faced. In June 2015, Dolezal's parents told reporters she was born white and was passing herself off as a black woman. In November 2015, she went on The Real to finally admit she was "biologically born white," but "identifies" as black.

Although she was fired by the NAACP and lost her job at Eastern Washington University, she continues to earn national attention. Last year, she published a memoir called In Full Color: Finding My Place In a Black and White World, in which she compared her experience to slavery. She is also the subject of a Netflix documentary, The Rachel Divide, which was released in April.

Photo credit: Twitter/Rachel Dolezal