From a press release:
Sean Okrzesik, age 34, of Syracuse, was sentenced today to serve 25-months in federal prison on charges of aggravated identity theft and theft of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. ... Okrzesik’s conduct occurred while he was employed in the Syracuse District Office of the Social Security Administration (SSA). ...
Okrzesik admitted that from February of 2020 through February of 2021, he opened bank accounts using the names and Social Security numbers of various SSI beneficiaries or their representative payees. Okrzesik also admitted that once these accounts had been created, he would divert SSI benefit payments intended for these beneficiaries into the accounts, which he then used to pay personal expenses including the purchase of video gaming equipment, a custom suit, jewelry, airline tickets to the Caribbean, and online gambling. The total amount of SSI benefits stolen by Okrzesik was $103,798.77. ...
5 comments:
Can we get a wifi signal in the cell and punish him more by making him work his SSI caseload?
SSI is the most miserable workload imaginable. No wonder most of the SSI CS’s die shortly after retirement.
Again... the fraud and abuse seems to come from within, more than from claimants. So frustrating. HAHA @ 10:38. PERFECT punishment, but why not pile on more?? He'll have the time. d;-)
I'm certain this could have been prevented by requiring a "wet signature" somewhere.
@237 You have to be kidding about more fraud and abuse from within than from the claimants. Employees are caught and properly punished. Claimants' fraud is reported to OIG who takes about 1 out of 10K cases that are referred to them. Even with those small numbers, there are many more claimants caught than employees. An email highlighting interesting prosecutions is sent to employees regularly. Most people on SSI are misrepresenting either their income, resources or living arrangement. Can't tell you how many LSDP claims leads I had from cases where an individual SSI claimant that was separated or not married died and now the living with spouse was going to file for the LSDP.
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