Photo by ssteege1.

At a press conference at which he tried to keep the focus on the District’s high-tech industry, Mayor Vince Gray was peppered with questions about the fallout from the news this week that perhaps as many as 150 current and former city employees allegedly drew unemployment insurance payments at the same time they earned their regular salaries. And Attorney General Irv Nathan said that while the fraud was widespread across the District government, there does not appear to be any collusion between those accused of taking two paychecks.

The allegations, which were first reported Monday by the Post’s Mike DeBonis, resulted in the suspension of about 90 current city employees.

Well, some of the 90 are now among the former city workers. Others, depending on the terms of their employment, remain on administrative leave. Several, Nathan said, are bus drivers employed by D.C. Public Schoolsstate superintendent of education.

“Some employees have been terminated,” said Lisa Mallory, the director of the Department of Employment Services. All told, the people accused of stealing unemployment benefits allegedly took about $800,000. The number of people under investigation is also in flux, a Gray spokesman said after the press conference, saying that while the number may climb, right now about 130 people are being scrutinized.

The people being investigated were identified, Mallory said, by her department running checks on the unemployment rolls against the federal government’s National Directory of New Hires. While instances of unemployment payments overlapping with the first paycheck a person receives in a new job are common, such overpayments are deemed fraud after three occasions. Mallory said DOES is now running quarterly checks on the city’s payroll. She added that problem of employees dipping twice is a problem that extends beyond District agencies. The weekly checks turn up between 50 and 60 hits, Mallory said.