ATLANTA (AP) – A Georgia man faces charges after authorities say he lied to his employer that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Santwon Antonio Davis, 34, is charged with defrauding his employer, the U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta said in a news release Thursday. Because Davis said he’d tested positive, his employer had to shut down its plant for sanitizing and put several other employees on paid leave while they quarantined, causing the company a loss of more than $100,000, prosecutors said.
He had his initial court appearance Thursday and was granted bond, according to online court records. A telephone number for Davis could not be found, and his lawyer did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Prosecutors say Davis has since admitted he didn’t have COVID-19.
Davis worked for an unnamed Fortune 500 company with a plant in the Atlanta area, prosecutors said. On March 12 and 13, the company held mandatory training on how employees could access information on its website about COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Employees were told they would receive paid time off to quarantine if they tested positive.