Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced two convictions for Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program fraud today. The school voucher program is taxpayer-funded and covers educational expenses for qualified students, such as private school tuition, curricula, educational supplies, tutoring and more.
On Tuesday, Johnny Bowers pleaded guilty to fraudulent schemes and artifices, a Class 2 felony, and forgery, a Class 4 felony. His co-defendant, Ashley Hewitt, aka Ashley Hopkins, also pleaded guilty to fraudulent schemes and artifices on Aug. 5. Both pleas were accepted and entered by the Maricopa County Superior Court.
According to Mayes’ office, Bowers and Hewitt worked together to defraud Arizona’s ESA program from Dec. 4, 2022 to May 3, 2024 by submitting forged birth certificates, forged utility bills and other documents to receive ESA funding. The defendants received a total of $110,258.28 for their fraudulent ESA applications for over 40 children, both real and fictitious, while living in Colorado.
The pair were indicted in November 2024. The press release concerning their indictment noted that they had submitted applications for 50 children, 43 of whom did not exist. They applied as parents under their own names as well as under the names of made-up “ghost” parents, using the funds for personal living expenses.
“Fraud in the ESA program will not be tolerated,” said Attorney General Mayes. “Those who exploit government systems for personal gain will be held accountable. My office will continue to aggressively prosecute fraud and protect taxpayer dollars.”
Sentencing for both defendants is scheduled on Friday, Oct. 24, at 9:30 a.m.
The case was investigated by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office Special Investigations Section and prosecuted by the Fraud and Special Prosecutions Section.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne issued a statement today as well, noting that the only way the conviction could’ve happened was because the Department of Education discovered the activity in 2024 and referred it for prosecution.
ESA Misspending
Horne’s statement, however, turned the focus to a recent appearance Mayes made on 12News where she said, “We have launched a public monies investigation, which I have the authority under the law to do, and early next week we will be sending Tom Horne essentially a demand letters asking him a series of questions, including things like what category, what, what legitimate category of spending expenditures does a diamond ring and lingerie fall under?
“What curriculum does lingerie—which they allowed to be purchased—what curriculum does that fall under? I mean, are we teaching homeschooled kids how to work at Victoria’s Secret? I mean, I don’t know. It’s insane.”
The 12News investigation team through a public records request discovered that ESA parents bought diamond rings, lingerie and Kenmore appliances with education tax dollars. The report from this month published a document with over 9,000 pages of marketplace ESA purchases.
12News also reported the following purchases, which are considered “unallowable” per ESA guidelines:
- Over 200 Apple iPhones
- Over 50 smart bigscreen TVs
- Luxury clothing, including lingerie, corsets, maternity wear
- Broadway tickets at ASU Gammage, including one for nearly $1,300.
- Hotel and resort stays, including Knott's Berry Farm, Great Wolf Lodge and Hilton properties
Despite being unallowable, the purchases went through because the Arizona Department of Education automatically approves purchases under $2,000. Horne’s statement today further explained this.
“In a recent television interview, state Attorney General Chris Mayes [sic] outrageously and mindlessly accused me of permitting improper purchases such as lingerie and diamonds. If she paid attention to her job or even to the news, she would know that this was a false charge,” he said. “To date we have collected or referred for collection more than $622,000 in improper purchases under the program where purchases for under $2,000 are paid but not approved immediately, subject to later audit.
“That method, called risk-based auditing, is a common practice in many federal and state agencies and is dictated by state law. Without this program, reimbursements for expenditures would take over two months, putting a terrible burden on parents who have paid money and are entitled to reimbursements.”
During her 12News interview, Mayes did acknowledge the cause of the backlog that led the department to begin automatically approving purchases under $2,000. This move has resulted in the automatic approval of more than a million ESA reimbursement requests totaling $124 million since late 2024.
“The problem here, Bram, is, number one, Horne has allowed anything under $2,000 to be automatically approved, which is why apparently we're now getting diamond rings being purchased with taxpayer money,” she said. “And then ultimately, the problem is this legislature which has put no guardrails on this whatsoever and has not, frankly, given Tom Horne enough auditors to audit this on the front end.”
Insufficient Auditing
As Horne pointed out in his statement, he has 12 auditors.
“The 12 people assigned to this task work very hard and courageously and can process 500 per day even though they get 1000 requests every day,” he said. “Without this program, reimbursements for expenditures would take over two months, putting a terrible burden on parents who have paid money and are entitled to reimbursements.”
Horne also highlighted that his office has won 16 appeals of improper expenses, such as dune buggies and golf simulators.
“In all those cases, the department has not received any support from the Attorney General’s office to ensure anyone who tried to defraud the system is held accountable,” he said. “That appeals work is being done entirely by the Department of Education, and we have won them all.”
Horne alleged that the Arizona House of Representatives had an item in its budget for more auditors in the Arizona Department of Education that wasn’t approved because “Governor Katie Hobbs told them that if they did not remove it, she would veto the budget.”
Reporting from KJZZ last month confirms that the bipartisan budget Hobbs signed includes no new funding for voucher staff, but Hobbs had actually faulted Republicans for the lack of funding. Her office said House Republicans wouldn’t agree to adding more guardrails to the program alongside new staff.
“The Governor’s Office will not expand wasteful bureaucracy at ADE without reforms to protect taxpayer dollars spent on the ESA entitlement program,” Christian Slater, Hobbs’ spokesman, said. “During budget discussions, House Republicans refused to tie staff investments to common sense accountability measures, even ones as basic as evaluating purchases under [$2,000].”
At the end of his statement today, Horne reaffirmed a commitment to proper use of public money.
“I am committed to doing everything possible to protect taxpayer resources and root out fraud and abuse,” he said.
Mayes is currently investigating Horne’s use of public money, however, and recently told 12News that “litigation is on the table.”
This reporting is supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
