In the Post, Mike DeBonis is reporting that 90 city employees have been placed on leave while the city investigates possible unemployment benefit fraud to the tune of $800,000:

The employees accused of wrongdoing worked in various arms of the District government, including the D.C. Public Schools and the D.C. Council, according to a high-ranking official to Mayor Vincent C. Gray, who was not allowed to speak publicly on the investigation. Some of the employees, Mallory said, received as much as $20,000 or more; others received only a few hundred dollars.

The alleged fraud is not complicated nor is it uncommon in unemployment insurance programs: Workers apply for checks and receive them legitimately for a time but fail to inform authorities as soon as they go back to work.

“Some are people who come in and out of government and never stopped [receiving unemployment checks]. Some may have worked in parts of an agency where for the summer months you don’t work,” Mallory said. “There are no clear patterns that we can discern. It’s just a matter of certifying you aren’t receiving income when you are receiving income.”

Well, then. The 90 employees on leave may be fired; an additional 60 are suspected of cashing unemployment checks when they were working.