From the Lexington Herald-Leader:
Flamboyant Social Security lawyer Eric C. Conn, who won disability checks for thousands of people in Eastern Kentucky but caused heartache for many former clients after he was accused of cheating on cases, pleaded guilty Friday in a federal fraud case.
Conn, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of stealing from the Social Security Administration and one count of bribing a federal judge. ...
He faces up to 12 years in prison. He is to be sentenced July 14. ...
9 comments:
Daugherty must be next. If you are an ALJ, or work for ODAR, all I can say is "INCOMING!!"
Maybe now Conn will be prohibited from representing SSA claimants?
Do you really think the U.S. Attorney's Office's Criminal Division would let SSA to proceed administratively against Conn until the criminal case was resolved?
As one of the whistleblowers in this case fighting to see some accountability in this matter for 12 years now this post almost makes me nostalgic for the name calling and criticism the we experienced on the blog before now.
I'm of several minds on this outcome. I'm glad to see any wrongdoers get caught and held accountable. As far as detection and enforcement the system worked. I was disappointed that innocent claimants got caught in the middle and think the agency could have handled the re-determinations of their claims better. I was disappointed (but not surprised) that some politicians and special interests tried to use this unfortunate incident to mischaracterize the degree of fraud or improper payments in the system. Characterizing as "rampant" one, a hundred, or even a thousand cases of fraud in a system involving millions of claims and beneficiaries is absurd and irresponsible. The only way such misinformation can be combated is with the facts. I hope that as SSA continues its welcome efforts to prevent and punish fraud, it is always careful to make clear how rare fraud is considering the size of the program.
Well, there are people at SSA who are not criminals but act like street thugs. Racism and bigotry are the norms and many of their foreign born employees and those with foreign names are treated like second-class citizens. No accountability whatsoever !!!
Roger on that! DFW of Texas - SSA field offices are in such a dire straits of discrimination and harassment that most, if not all of their Asian-Pacific employees are working in fear! It's a troubling national trend? What a darn shame!
As a retired SSA employee, I had formerly worked coast-to-coast in many components, Boston is definitely the worst for foreign born employees, yes may possibly be so for Asian-American employees due to their cultural issues or lack of ours?! Either way, it is a lose-lose situation for the agency. DFW are run by Real-American or Hispanic mentality and it has always made us look bad down there.
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