DETR wants me to repay Unemployment I received during Covid- what to do?

I am freaking out. During Covid, I applied for unemployment. At the time I was working as a sales rep for a company on the east coast and I live near Carson City, NV. Once the stay at home orders went into effect, I could not only not visit my client's sites but I also could not fly to the east coast every 6 weeks as my job required. It brought my job to a complete halt and my company could not afford to keep me on payroll.

Once I heard that unemployment was being made available for situations like these, I went online and applied. I didn't really think I would even get it, had no idea if I really qualified or not - things were changing day to day, but I figured why not apply. To my surprise, I received a call from the unemployment office several days later. It was a case worker who wanted to review my application. I answered all of her questions and at the end of the call she said I qualified.

In all, I received $12,000 in unemployment. As Covid started to wind down, I found a new job and just went on with my life.

Fast forward to 6 months ago. I receive a letter out of nowhere from DETR saying that as it turns out, I didn't really qualify for unemployment back then, and they want me to repay it. The letter said I could appeal, which I did. I sent in a letter with documentation and asked how to proceed with my appeal. I didn't hear back for 3 more months.

The response I got was that my appeal was turned down because I didn't show up. HUH? I called the unemployment office and told then I was never notified when my appeal would take place. I asked them to tell me when they sent me the notification. The guy I talked to said "it was sent by email". I never received it- I went through ALL of my junk email too and I never got it. I asked if they also sent it by regular mail (they have sent everything else by regular mail and not email) and he said no they didn't. I then asked can you forward me the email you sent me so that I can see for sure it was sent- he said nope, sorry I can't. He did say I could send in a letter explaining that I never got the email with the appeal date information to request a new appeal date. So I did that right away, and didn't hear anything until today.

Today I received a letter from DETR saying my appeal for the new appeal date was denied because I requested it after the final date for making such a request which they claim was Sept 24, 2024. Which doesn't make sense because they didn't even send me the notice that my appeal was turned down until November 2024. Now the letter I just received says I can appeal this last decision but I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels here. Something isn't right with all of this. I feel like they are trying to wear me down until I just pay back the $12,000.

Has this happened to anyone else? Any advice would be much appreciated. I want to settle this and not have it hanging over my head.