Convictions result from investigation into workforce grant scheme

The Charleston Gazette’s investigation of federal grant misuse at West Virginia’s state employment agency culminated with four criminal convictions in federal court and a prison sentence for one of the people involved. Gazette business reporter Eric Eyre used a hex editor to analyze the contents of a computer file, showing that the state official in charge of distributing federal grants at the employment agency had written – and later approved  -- a $100,000 grant application for her son’s marketing and publishing firm. The same official tried to steer an additional $1 million to her son’s company, but the newspaper’s reporting prompted the agency to scrap the project before the money was spent. The Gazette’s rolling investigation toppled three state officials and two local computer executives.