Dec 1, 2012

Former Manager Charged With Identity Theft

      From the Associated Press:
A former manager at the Social Security Administration has been charged with stealing another man's identity and using it to make off with more than $160,000 worth of stocks. 
Randolph Hurst, of West Warwick [RI], was indicted Thursday. He appeared before a magistrate in U.S. District Court in Providence on Friday but did not enter a plea. ... 
Prosecutors say he spent all the money, including $60,000 for gold coins.
     Update: As a reader pointed out, it appears that Mr. Hurst has been trying his hand at representing Social Security claimants since retiring from Social Security.  I wonder about this statement at his website:
For part of my career, I decided whether or not someone qualified for disability benefits.  Any approval that I made was considered a final decision of the Social Security Administration.  I was trained to understand and perform the work of the disability examiners on the State medical board for initial and first appeal cases.  I was trained as well as to understand and perform the work of the Administrative Law Judges for the final appeal for previously denied claims for disability benefits.
That's the sort of statement that would get an attorney in trouble since, at best, it contains great exaggeration but Hurst wasn't an attorney. Of course, if you believe the testimonials on his website (and they look awfully suspicious to me) Hurst helped a postal service employee get the money he deserved from a lawsuit. If he did, he was clearly practicing law without a license.

2 comments:

Max Abilify said...

Worked with him in the mid-80's in Rhode Island. He was right out of college. Young, very glib, smart, salesman type. Started as a CR, worked up to OS and the Area Director's office, then a District Manager. Would think he still wasn't old enough for retirement, but maybe he met 20/50 for an early out. Wonder if he pulled this stunt while he was still a DM. If this costs him his pension, it will be more than the $160,000 he stole.

Max Abilify said...

After a little googling and dredging of memory: Think Randy Hurst started with SSA as a service rep at age 19 or so, then CR, then OS etc. No college. He was ADM in Warwick, RI and retired in 2011 at age 48 or 49 with National Guard time added on to his SSA service time. I recall a Providence RI district office ADM, "Don", who had come from the Boston Regional Office, was his rabbi and fast-forwarded Randy's career. Same personality type. Hurst was alleged to have accessed SSA's data base in 2010 in the identity theft scheme. So he was still with SSA when this all went down. This well could be bye-bye to his federal pension -- never mind hello to the federal pen, and bye-bye as well to his business of non-attorney representation of clients before SSA and the VA.