US Attorneys Don't Think Much Of OIG's Referrals For Criminal Prosecution
From Social Security's Financial Report for 2015. OIG is Social Security's Office of Inspector General
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Just because they aren't prosecuting, doesn't mean fraud isn't occurring. The US attorneys have their own agendas, and unless the case is presented to them on a silver platter AKA the NY cases, they aren't interested.
Show the statistic of what happens when US Attorney refuses and the OIG agent takes case to local prosecutors. This was common practice in Michigan and very effective.
to add to above. Of course the US attorneys aren't taking these cases...they are too "small." They are not interested in fraud cases that result in $10k-$40k in recovery. While this is still fraud and is quite common, it's not prosecuted.
Real case that I referred to OIG and US Attorney declined to prosecute. It was identity theft. One woman got hold of a Texas BC for another woman born in 1951. She never worked under this SSN but another woman did. She managed to get a recent state ID card and even a recent US Passport. Also managed to get on SSI although she told one examiner she was born in Mexico and another examiner that she was born in Texas. But she didn't know the life history of the real woman. She had no documents for the former names used, she had no living parents, she had forgotten the names of her siblings who would have had the same parents' names on the numident. The other woman had all the marriage and divorce documents of the former names, had a living parent, had many more old documents.
The office manager interviewed her in Spanish. She still maintained she had been born in Texas. OIG agents attempted to interview her in Spanish. She refused to be interviewed. We at SSA made a decision that the SSI recipient was fraudulent and entitled the other woman to her retirement check. OIG did not want us to take any administrative action until the US attorney decided what to do. She got a lawyer and refused to be interviewed further. The State Department who issued the US Passport waited for SSA to act. US Attorney decided that they did not have enough info to prosecute unless she confessed. So they did not take the case.
We in SSA could not pay benefits to two people under the same SSN, so we administratively denied the SSI benefits and sent the woman a bill for $70K. She has not appealed or requested review or waiver or anything. We did make her destitute since SSI was her only alleged income, but nothing criminal came of her fraudulent actions.
6 comments:
Just because they aren't prosecuting, doesn't mean fraud isn't occurring. The US attorneys have their own agendas, and unless the case is presented to them on a silver platter AKA the NY cases, they aren't interested.
Show the statistic of what happens when US Attorney refuses and the OIG agent takes case to local prosecutors. This was common practice in Michigan and very effective.
to add to above. Of course the US attorneys aren't taking these cases...they are too "small." They are not interested in fraud cases that result in $10k-$40k in recovery. While this is still fraud and is quite common, it's not prosecuted.
@ 10:11 - the NY cases were not picked up by the U.S. attorneys - they were prosecuted by the NY DA's office....
Money spent on this non productive folly is the real fraud.
Real case that I referred to OIG and US Attorney declined to prosecute. It was identity theft. One woman got hold of a Texas BC for another woman born in 1951. She never worked under this SSN but another woman did. She managed to get a recent state ID card and even a recent US Passport. Also managed to get on SSI although she told one examiner she was born in Mexico and another examiner that she was born in Texas. But she didn't know the life history of the real woman. She had no documents for the former names used, she had no living parents, she had forgotten the names of her siblings who would have had the same parents' names on the numident. The other woman had all the marriage and divorce documents of the former names, had a living parent, had many more old documents.
The office manager interviewed her in Spanish. She still maintained she had been born in Texas. OIG agents attempted to interview her in Spanish. She refused to be interviewed. We at SSA made a decision that the SSI recipient was fraudulent and entitled the other woman to her retirement check. OIG did not want us to take any administrative action until the US attorney decided what to do. She got a lawyer and refused to be interviewed further. The State Department who issued the US Passport waited for SSA to act. US Attorney decided that they did not have enough info to prosecute unless she confessed. So they did not take the case.
We in SSA could not pay benefits to two people under the same SSN, so we administratively denied the SSI benefits and sent the woman a bill for $70K. She has not appealed or requested review or waiver or anything. We did make her destitute since SSI was her only alleged income, but nothing criminal came of her fraudulent actions.
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