From the
Lexington Herald-Leader:
Eric C. Conn violated his bond conditions when he left the
country and did not show up for sentencing in his Social Security
disability fraud case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Magistrate Judge Robert E.
Wier ruled Thursday.
The decision means the government can immediately sell the former disability attorney’s office complex ...
No new information was provided at the hearing about how Conn allegedly
left the country or his whereabouts in the six months he spent in hiding
before he was arrested Dec. 2 in Honduras. ...
White said Conn gave prosecutors a substantial amount of
information after negotiating his plea, which helped in cases against
Daugherty and Bradley Adkins, a Pikeville psychologist convicted of
signing false evaluations for Conn.
One question at issue is
whether prosecutors should now be able to use information Conn provided
to try to convict him of additional charges.
White said in court Thursday that Conn no longer has money to pay him.
White asked to stay on as Conn’s attorney by appointment of the court — paid with public funds ...
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article192020264.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article192020264.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article192020264.html#storylink=cpyNo new information was provided at the hearing about how Conn allegedly
left the country or his whereabouts in the six months he spent in hiding
before he was
arrested Dec. 2 in Honduras.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/article192020264.html#storylink=cpy
The Mafia boss Carlos Marcello reportedly had a sign in his office that read "Three can keep a secret if two are dead."
ReplyDeleteIn following this case, the question that has repeatedly crossed my mind is "What made them think they would get away with this?"
You are bribing an administrative law judge and submitting false reports from a psychologist. Obviously, someone is going to notice the pattern of behavior by the judge and the consistently favorable psychological reports. Additionally, others had to know what was going on. When you add to this the whistleblower reward, the real question is why his scheme was not discovered sooner.
I asked a lawyer friend, who once practiced criminal defense, about this and he said his clients simply did not believe they would be caught. It was pure arrogance.
There is no arrogance on the face in that picture.
I hope Mr. Conn enjoyed his ill-gotten gains because his life going forward is going to be miserable.
@3:01
ReplyDeleteAgreed, he was a fool and deserves what's coming. The only thing I would quibble about is that "consistently favorable psychological reports," necessarily means there is a problem. The pool of disability claimants is not a random sampling where you would expect to see an equal number of unfavorable reports. As a group disability claimants are more likely to have serious mental health problems that would justifiably produce honest and accurate reports documenting same.
When psychologists tell their patients they don't have serious problems preventing work, they are much less likely to file disability claims, and their attorneys would likely advise them they have no claim and withdraw. So, as an SSA adjudicator, you don't see many unfavorable psychological reports because those claimants more often didn't file or pursue disability claims. Ditto for reports of physical limitation. There will be extremely rare exceptions where someone like the person in the story does something very stupid.
He drove a Rolls Royce and could afford to have Obama Girl and America's best fiddle players appear in his advertising. Eric Conn just as your add said you haven't gone anywhere.
ReplyDelete@4:24 PM:
ReplyDeleteI take your point. I should have said "consistently favorable psychological reports from the same source." If an adjudicator sees that a very large number of a representative's mentally impaired claimants are treated by the same psychologist, it should raise a red flag.
@4:31 PM:
"It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ... but for Wales, Richard?" - A Man for All Seasons Movie, 1966
"...but for a Roll-Royce, Eric?"
It's funny, just a few years ago it was common to see SSA ordered consultative reports that disabled people. Now it seems they are pretty much boilerplate that everyone can stay on task for a normal workday doing simple work, with normal breaks, cursory interaction with bosses and co-workers and limited or no interaction with the general public. Is there a pattern here? Like the Honorable Senator Rand Paul of the great state of Kentucky said, hell even he has a little anxiety sometimes! Don't we all?
ReplyDeleteODAR Hearing Office employees reported Conn and ALJ Daugherty for years before the scandal broke. All their complaints fell on deaf ears and those employees were maligned and ostracized by SSA management.
ReplyDeleteAll of this took longer than many people thought it would to come to a head, but it did. Conn was lucky to get away with it for as long as he did. Had the Huntington office been in any way functional, with anyway functional leadership (including HOCALJ), this never would have been allowed to happen. With any high level crime one commits, even if one is the best criminal mastermind on the planet that never makes mistakes, one's chances of getting away with it forever, especially if it is ongoing conduct, are slim to none. All anyone has to do is piss off one wrong person, deal with one wrong person who might get sloppy, get caught, and give up bigger fish, etc. Crime doesn't pay unless you literally have no other option.
ReplyDeleteThis process has given me know lot of stress, anxiety and depression. I will have to add that to my list of ailments.
ReplyDeleteHeard there was a possible documentary about all this. This may be a feature film somewhere.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers me that he might get some leniency because he's ratting on the people who helped him! I also think the chief ALJ and the supervisors who let the employees reporting this suffer should have suffered greater consequences.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought Daugherty had already been sentenced. What other information could he have given that would have affected this case? These people helped him get rich. He gave them some money too, but he ruined them.
ReplyDeleteAnd sadly, a right-wing anti-social security congressperson had to be the one blow this open. The 'system' that should have caught this didn't.