Fraud Allegation In Montana

From MontanasNewsStation.com:

A Clyde Park woman is accused of lying to get Social Security benefits for 18 years. Sandra Bowman pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges. ...

The indictment says Bowman falsely claimed she lived alone, or only with her child, when she was living with her common-law husband or boyfriend.

It also alleges Bowman claimed that no other person paid for her food, rent, taxes and utilities, when her boyfriend paid some or all of the bills, the indictment alleges.

Really Simple Scams Do Work

From television station WGRZ in Buffalo, NY:

A few days ago Lizzie Jones of Buffalo was visited by three men who claimed they were from the government.

Lizzie Jones, Buffalo Resident: "We're from Social Security and we want to make sure the people are getting their social security check."

Lizzie said she gave them personal information including her social security number because they showed her identification.

Lizie Jones: "He did it real fast. He did it so fast I couldn't see it really."

But Lizzie's grandson Avery was suspcious. After the men left he had his mom call Social Security.

Avery Hutchenson, Lizzie's Grandson: "They don't send anyone door to door and they did not send anyone in this area during that day."

Fraud Accusation In Arizona

According to the Arizona Republic, Harold Pease, who is pictured here, has been indicted for Social Security fraud. An article in the Arizona Republic about Mr. Pease's beekeeping business led to the charge that he had been earning too much money to stay on Social Security disability benefits.

It seems to me that allowing a newspaper article about his business suggests that Mr. Pease may not have known that he was doing anything wrong.

Twenty-One Months For Social Security Fraud

From the Baltimore Sun:

A former Carroll County [Maryland] woman who collected her deceased husband's benefits after she remarried received a federal prison sentence of almost two years yesterday for lying to the Social Security Administration and pocketing $70,000 in benefits to which she was not entitled.

Jennifer Jones Peach Gimbel, 39, of Arizona pleaded guilty in April to making false statements to a government agency. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced her to to 21 months in prison, followed by three years' supervised release.

Prosecutor Mad At Social Security

From the Fond du Lac Reporter:

An area man accused of trying to use a false Social Security card to obtain an identification card isn't the highest-profile case the Fond du Lac County District Attorney's Office will deal with this year.

But the case definitely has raised some questions about how to prosecute a person whose identity you are not sure of, said District Attorney Michael O'Rourke.

O'Rourke was up in arms after a request to the U.S. Social Security Administration to provide someone to testify at a jury trial for Jose A. Lopez-Barrera — a 17-year-old Eden boy accused of using a false Social Security card to try and obtain a driver's license — was denied. ...

In a letter from the Social Security Administration denying the request, Michael G. Gallagher, associate general counsel for general law, wrote that the district attorney's application did "not establish the criteria necessary to allow employee testimony."

" … Allowing the testimony in this matter would unduly burden SSA (Social Security Administration) … the testimony would unduly expend the United States' resources for private purposes," Gallagher said.

Fraud In Louisiana

From WDSU:

A 70-year-old Westwego [LA] woman who had received nearly $30,000 in Social Security benefits pleaded guilty in federal court to lying in order to keep the benefits.

The U.S. attorney's office said Ida Taylor pleaded guilty to making false statements to agents in the federal agency's investigation.

Fraud In Blountville, TN

The Tri-Cities Times News reports that William D. Pickel of Blountville, TN has pleaded guilty to one count of Social Security fraud. He had failed to report occasional employment as a truck driver and later as owner of a truck line while drawing Social Security disability benefits.

Sacramento Woman Accused Of Fraud

The Sacramento Bee reports that Valerie Jean Rogers has been charged with submitting false information to obtain almost $35,000 in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) over seven years.

Fraud In Florida

From the Bradenton Herald Tribune:

[Frank] Hagaman pleaded guilty in March to one count of mail fraud. During a six-year period, authorities said, Hagaman applied for and received disability benefits from the VA and SSA by fraudulently claiming that he was too disabled to work. But Hagaman was running -- and working at -- a landscaping business, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Hagaman concealed his income in part by using his wife and his son as nominees to receive the payments for the work he performed.

Fraud In Charleston, WV

The Charleston, WV Daily Mail reports on Brenda Sue and Ray Jude who pleaded guilty to fraud for misrepresenting their income and living arrangements to obtain SSI benefits from the Social Security Administration.

Social Security And Terrorism Investigations Or Is It Just Illegal Immigration?

From the Washington Post:

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Social Security Administration's vast databases of personal information have become a resource for federal investigators, who have asked the agency to check tens of thousands of records for number misuse and identity fraud -- potential precursors to terrorist activity.

The Social Security Administration is "literally the Fort Knox of identity information in the United States," said James Huse, the agency's inspector general from 1998 to 2004. "That's a pretty impressive investigative tool that no other agency possesses."

From just after Sept. 11 through 2005, Social Security officials sent prosecutors 456 referrals that were classified as terrorism-related, according to statistics compiled by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The review shows that 91 percent of those referrals led to prosecutions.

Only the departments of Justice and Homeland Security have referred more terrorism-related cases for prosecution, according to the Syracuse records, which are based on data compiled by the Justice Department's Executive Office for United States Attorneys."

Still, few if any suspects in Social Security cases are ever linked publicly to alleged terrorist activity. Most cases referred to prosecutors in the months after Sept. 11 involved document fraud by Latino immigrants working at airports.