Nearly 200 Kentucky tornado-relief checks sent to the wrong people

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Checks from the Team Western Kentucky Relief Fund have ended up in the hands of the wrong people.

At least 192 checks, each for $1,000 and totaling $192,000, went to recipients who had no connection to the tornado damage caused in December 2021.

The tornado relief fund has raised more than $52 million through charitable donations from around the world, according to its website. The fund paid funeral expenses of storm victims and has aided affected homeowners, renters and farmers in the region.

"Thankfully, there are a lot of good, honest people who told us 'Hey, this is a check I shouldn't have received,' but at this point, the Public Protection Cabinet has told us they don't have any way to know, and if they don't know who's inaccurate, they're in charge of where it goes right now," said Kentucky Treasurer Allison Ball.

Late last year, the state Public Protection Cabinet issued more than $10 million in $1,000 increments from the relief fund. Within days, the state treasurer's office was hearing from people who reported they received checks despite not being directly affected by the storms, Ball's office said.

Ball said when the legislator appropriates money, there are guardrails, including auditing, to monitor the funds. But the donation fund is being handled by the Public Protection Cabinet, under Gov. Andy Beshear.

Beshear, who set up the relief fund, defended its role in the region's painstaking recovery from deadly tornadoes that pummeled parts of western Kentucky.

The governor pointed to errors in data provided to his administration as the reason any checks were sent out erroneously. Those amounts, he said, would add up to a fraction of the total assistance.

“We’ll work to find any dollar that went somewhere that it shouldn’t have and to get it back," the Democratic governor told reporters Wednesday. "But there are a lot of people out there who rightfully received those checks that are helping their families.”

Ball said the Cabinet got inaccurate names and addresses for those in need of relief.

"The answer that we've heard is that they've said they got a list from FEMA and from some insurance companies," she said. "FEMA says 'We would not have given you wrong names,' so right now you have people pointing fingers at each other, we don't know the answer and we don't know the exact amount of checks that have gone out to the wrong people."

Nearly 200 tornado relief fund checks have been canceled. Ball said if Kentuckians knowingly cashed a check they shouldn't have gotten, the state has ways of going after the money.

The canceled checks amounted to less than 2% of the total checks.