State accuses Richland woman of lying to get $20,000 in benefits

A no-bail warrant was issued Thursday for a Richland woman after she missed a court hearing on new charges that she was overpaid about $20,000 in state benefits by lying about her marital status and living arrangements.

Lisa Vanklinken, 38, was sent a summons to appear in Benton County Superior Court on charges of first-degree theft by welfare fraud and forgery.

The mother of four was the subject of several fraud investigations by the state Department of Social and Health Services for the food and child care benefits she received between November 2014 and August 2016.

She denied getting married in 2014, even after being confronted with wedding pictures and a marriage certificate, and insisted she lived alone despite investigators seeing her husband drive out of the garage at the same time on different mornings, according to court documents.

Investigators with the department’s Office of Fraud and Accountability concluded that the couple lived together, but his income was not reported on any forms Vanklinken filed with the state department, documents said.

A Department of Social and Health Services employee received a tip in February 2015 that Vanklinken had gotten married the previous October. Vanklinken denied the claim.

A fraud investigator then dug up photos showing Vanklinken in a wedding dress and the groom in a suit with a wedding party in Las Vegas, along with the marriage certificate, court documents said.

Vanklinken again denied it, then allegedly said it was a “joke” when shown the photos and documents and began crying as she explained she couldn’t lose her benefits.

Vanklinken was told to contact the department and report the changes to her household, but she never did, documents said.

She continued to file for state assistance in 2015, acknowledging that she was married but saying her husband lived in Pasco instead of in her Richland home, court records show.

She submitted statements from relatives confirming the separate homes. However, a state investigator went to the Pasco address and discovered Vanklinken’s husband did not live there and that a relative’s signature appeared to be a forgery.

Vanklinken later asked for an administrative hearing when her child care benefits were terminated.

It was during the administrative review process that a state employee noticed a lease/rental agreement Vanklinken submitted in April 2014 with a name covered up next to her own, to show she was the only person renting the home, records show.

Vanklinken reportedly reiterated that her husband did not live in the house.

When an investigator got an original copy of the lease/rental agreement showing the husband’s name, Vanklinken said it had been the plan to live together but it never happened, so she whited out his name, court documents said.

Investigators in late 2015 and again in June 2016 conducted surveillance on the home for three days each time and saw the husband always leave around 7:30 a.m., documents said.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 6:56 PM with the headline "State accuses Richland woman of lying to get $20,000 in benefits."