From the Press of Atlantic City:
A Social Security Administration employee admitted Monday to unlawfully accessing the Social Security accounts of individuals and falsifying their records to steal funds for his own use, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Nicholas Pao, 37, of Egg Harbor Township, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez in federal court to charges of theft of government funds and aggravated identity theft, Carpenito said.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Pao was a 10-year employee of the Social Security Administration who worked as a claims technical expert in the administration’s office in Egg Harbor Township, Carpenito said.
Pao was responsible for determining eligibility and payment amounts, processing difficult cases, assisting in case reviews, and making special payment approvals, Carpenito said.
From December 2014 to July of last year, Pao used his credentials to access the confidential records of several individuals without their knowledge or authority, Carpenito said.
Pao altered their records and made fraudulent changes that caused the Social Security Administration to issue benefits to these individuals, Carpenito said. He would then intercept these benefits, which were issued by way of a Direct Express account and credit card. ...
Apparently there is some fraud, waste and abuse within the SSA. When one of these gets caught, I tend to think there are many more who haven't been caught.
ReplyDeleteFunny how almost all fraud comes from 4 main avenues: employees of SSA, people not reporting the death (backyard burials), PA theft, and underreporting of income. Some of that last one is clear fraud, while most is due to the restraints of the system (could use some rule changes). The real problem is SSA uses "fraud" to deny people who can't work but weren't able to "prove" it to the ALJ. It is absurd that SSA requires "objective proof" for pain when no such proof has been invented !!
ReplyDeleteMost people will contact SSA right away if they don't receive a payment or receive a letter that they don't understand. It was never a smart plan redirecting benefits. It's so incredibly easy to track once a paper trail has been made. He should receive a lengthy fine and jail sentence for abusing the public's trust. How anyone believes this can last longer than a year or two, i'll never know.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who says they have pain but cannot prove it is not accused or suspected of fraud unles they are also working as a lumberjack , stevedore or some such
ReplyDelete3:23 PM. They may not "accuse," but ALJ's do claim the claimants are "not entirely credible... ". Never mind that in my case there was anywhere from 10-20+ YEARS of pain complaints in medical records, plus accommodations by an employer that predated the decision by 10+ years. additionally, Fibromyalgia specifically states in its guidelines that no objective evidence is required, do to its nature.
ReplyDeleteExactly where does one report on SSA employee fraud, more than once, more than several times, ongoing underreporting of benefits to give to those that should be on SSDI BUT getting SSI instead and being done by more than one SSA employee on more than one SSA beneficiary? Multiple complaints of fraud have already gone to the SSA OIG and it sends us right back to the offices where the ongoing fraud has occurred. Something is really wrong with or when reporting employee fraud abuse in the SSA systems! This is a lot bigger problem than what it appears to be with epic theft by certain SSA employees and a huge coverup by the top SSA administration for decades.
ReplyDeleteClaimants can be eligible for SSI, but miss out on the date last insured for SSD. It is not uncommon. Same with someone whose DLI is 20 years prior to the filing date, one would assume if you were disabled 20 years prior, you would seek assistance at that time and not wait.
ReplyDeleteOh please, stop ascribing bad intentions to disability applicants. Very few are knowingly committing fraud. Some wait to apply because they don’t even know the program existed. Some don’t apply because they are too depressed, or too uneducated, to know how to apply. Some don’t know Social Security disability means unable to do any kind of job, not just the kind of job they used to do. Some even apply because their private disability insurer contractually obligates them to do so. And, there are lots of people who are in pain, but never go to the doctor, or the doctor doesn’t believe them, or the pain is psychosomatic in nature and has no objective source. The point is, because somebody has a bad case for disability does not make them a fraudster, and you are doing a disservice by equating a guy with no evidence for why his back hurts with someone who actively seeks out a doctor to produce fraudulent documentation.
ReplyDelete@11:41am - Hhahahah!
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have no clue on how those two programs are administered. Nobody. I repeat, NOBODY is keeping people on SSI if they should be on SSDI. Once they are on SSDI, the office work drops and they no longer need to do redeterminations if the beneficiary gets enough money. They want that because there are more than enough people getting SSI to not worry about sitting around twiddling their thumbs.
Like 12:21pm said, they either didn't work long enough in a job covered by Social Security, or didn't have enough medical evidence to show they were disabled when they were last currently insured.
Just how do you report fraud to the fraudulent ?
ReplyDeleteTo 8:44
ReplyDeleteIf you want to report fraud, you contact the Office of the Inspector General.
REPORT FRAUD
If you suspect someone of committing fraud, submit a report via our online fraud reporting form https://www.ssa.gov/fraudreport/oig/public_fraud_reporting/form.htm
or contact us by mail, fax, or phone.
U.S. Mail:
Social Security Fraud Hotline
P.O. Box 17785
Baltimore, Maryland 21235
FAX: 410-597-0118
Telephone: 1-800-269-0271 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
TTY: 1-866-501-2101 for the deaf or hard of hearing.