From a press release:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado announces Justin Skiff, age 36, of Castle Pines, appeared in U.S District Court today to face one count each of wire fraud, social security fraud, and money laundering
According to the information filed in this case, beginning in August 2019 and continuing through September 2021, it is alleged Skiff used his position as a claims specialist with the Social Security Administration (SSA), to fraudulently obtain money from the SSA. Skiff is alleged to have filed fictious claims for benefits using false identities and the identity of an actual individual to collect proceeds from these claims. According to court documents, Skiff’s actions ultimately led to the theft of approximately $310,601.44 from the SSA. …
Disgusting. I wonder how many get away with this type of behavior. Every keystroke is recorded. Reports of fraud like this are circulated by management to all employees. Every year there is training to remind employees what happens for more minor infractions, like working on a relative's claim when there is nothing fraudulent at all. Yet some goofballs think they can outwit the system.
ReplyDeleteSince the stolen amount has cents I'd guess he was an SSI claims specialist.
100% of them get caught. It’s actually not that common. Kind of like when you guys tell us the claimants NEVER, EVER scam the disability system.
DeleteThere are bad people everywhere. Even in disability law believe it or not!!!
This just burns me up. Complaints of low funding, and ya got people like this in there. *eye roll*
ReplyDeleteWhat are you suggesting, that funding is enough to properly staff offices? Yeah a couple of employees a year are caught stealing. Guess what? We are still overwhelmed and understaffed.
DeleteHow can one steal > 300 K and only be charged with 3 counts ??
ReplyDeleteIf you read the article in the Littleton, CO, local news, this guy created 10 - yes 10 - SSNs for fake children, using names from popular culture. Then he watched for insured people to die and filed survivor child claims on their records. He also had an accomplice serving as a payee for five of these kids. All of this should have come up on CHIRP reviews...the management of that office deserves to be fired. They obviously had too cozy of a relationship with him or were too overwhelmed to question him.
ReplyDeleteTo the contrary, integrity reviews most likely are what caught him. Skiff spaced them out over a long enough period that there wasn’t initially an immediate pattern, and who knows if the same member of management reviewed and cleared them. Most likely not.
DeleteAlso, Skiff could have very well fraudulently created verification responses from the cities where the fake children were “born”. You don’t know the details, so your call to fire management is poorly developed. You come across as emotionally weak and intellectually immature.
It takes time to find and develop these things. Maybe breathe, relax, and thank the measures in place that caught a bad guy.