Arizona Father Faces Felony Charges Over ESA Program Fraud
A case in Arizona has drawn attention as a father is accused of manipulating receipts to secure funds from the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) program. Allegedly, he fraudulently claimed over $4,000 using his child’s account.
Shawn Hantke is alleged to have submitted three falsified receipts between December 11, 2024, and August 5, 2025, to the Arizona Department of Education, claiming purchases of musical instruments. According to Vanessa Ceja-Cervantes from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, each receipt supposedly included tracking information for deliveries that purportedly occurred before the orders were actually placed.
The charges against Hantke include one count of Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, classified as a Class 2 Felony, and three counts of Forgery, classified as Class 4 Felonies.
This case comes in the wake of a report by KJZZ in May, which highlighted a critical audit by the Arizona Auditor General. The audit criticized the state’s Department of Education for its handling of the ESA program, pointing out failures in monitoring and verifying purchases.
The audit included allegations of insufficient follow-up on questionable transactions and an automatic approval process for purchases under $2,000. When auditors examined 63 transactions from July 2023 to October 2025, they discovered issues in 25 of those, accounting for 34% of the total transaction value.
