From the Charlotte Observer:
Oliver Montgomery’s job was to help clients get their Social Security payments.
Instead, he stole them, a new court document said Tuesday – more than $37,000 in all. ...
He allegedly committed the crimes while on the taxpayers’ dole: Montgomery worked as a service representative in the Charlotte office of the Social Security Administration ...
Montgomery’s scheme covered a 12-month period that ended August, during which he allegedly diverted tens of thousands of dollars from two Social Security beneficiaries, the affidavit says.
In one of the cases, Montgomery actually assisted his own investigation.
After threatening an ex-girlfriend who planned to take him to court over a previous debt, Montgomery shot her a text message with a selfie he’d taken at the Social Security office. In the photograph, Montgomery posed with a large amount of cash, the affidavit says.
“Show them that stack on my desk,” he told the former girlfriend in the text.
Instead, she eventually shared the text with federal officials, the affidavit says. ...Note to the reporter who wrote this: Being a federal employee doesn't mean that you're "on the taxpayers' dole." That's an insult to the vast majority of government employees who perform their work honorably.
Why is it that there seems to be 100 of these cases of federal employees who commit fraud for every 1 of claimants? Even the Conn job was the wrongdoing of everyone but the claimants! As for Senator Tom Coburn's alleged tree trimmer that was used to start THE WAR ON THE DISABLED... forgive me for being blunt, but I find his (Coburn) story lacks credibility. He used one alleged person as an example of fraud without naming him, giving us his disability, whether he was on ssdi/ssi... Coburn also didn't ever report on the fraud investigation of the person or whether there was an investigation. Furthermore, there are other reasons for lying about income, such as avoiding child support and taxes. For example, a well known towing company, which is the go-to company of a local police department, offered to cut my tow by $20 if I paid cash instead of a check. Perhaps this tree trimmer, knowing Coburn was a Senator, merely TOLD him it was because of disability because he didn't want to say "tax evasion" to a Senator! At any rate, Coburn used this as an excuse to start the Republican WAR ON THE DISABLED instead of going after the individual. By the way, almost all other SSA fraud you hear about is on the Retirement sidebor by people with access to someone's funds. Such as stealing by children or payees. Other widespread fraud deals with not reporting the death, hiding the death, etc.
ReplyDeleteAbout the Conn case... Even that seems more like 1920-1960s New York "greasing the skids." My grand father owned a small trucking company and hated going to New York. He told us that getting in and out of New York required his drivers to take 200-300 dollars of cash in order to get their loads in and out. You had to bribe everyone from the permits guy, the customs guy, local unions guy, "protection" guy etc. The mob collected fees for local, state, and even federal officials. If you didn't pay the bribe, customs would not release your load. Because of this, Daugherty, as the government is employee, should have bore the greatest penalty. He is the one, not Conn, who approved the claimants.
Employee fraud is easier to catch than fraud by members of the public. Every keystroke on a computer can be seen. I don't know the numbers but it doesn't seem very often that an SSA employee is caught stealing money from the govt. I see EITC (tax) fraud about once a week. I don't think SSA fraud is all that common but SSI sure is. Folks misrepresent their living arrangements and under the table income often enough that I see it and I don't even handle SSI.
ReplyDelete8:23 PM. I read the living arrangement for SSI. Frankly, I am baffled. How much money is wasted on administering a one-third reduction for 5% of recipients? The calculations and verifications apply to ALL SSI, not just arrangement B. What group of idiots came up with this? Oh, Congress! In essence, they are encouraging families to NOT help their disabled members. Do we really want the disabled to live alone in section 8 housing with heating benefits, etc. These rules are STUPID! Families should be encourage to do more, not less. Many of these people are incapable of understanding these rules. I find them confusing, myself. I would hardly call being in violation of these rules to be equal to embezzlement. I would like to see one of these Congressmen try to live on $750 a month.
ReplyDeleteI would not call it embezzlement, I would call it outright theft, stealing, lying or fraud.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comment that Daugherty should have received the longest prison term. Having dealt with attorneys involving SSDI for 27 years, I can guarantee that Conn and Daugherty are only the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, SSA enables these cases by lack of oversight by the IG office and implicit endorsement of attorney representation. I wish some intrepid reporter would follow the money, as that would expose others involved in these crimes. The true heroes are the two female SSA whistleblowers. Bless them for their courage while enduring terrible abuse.
ReplyDeleteAt least Conn and Daugherty are being punished. I was upset with the chief ALJ's and the office manager who allowed the continued abuse of those two
ReplyDeleteSSA employees.