SSA Dropped Crime Ridden USProtect Just Last Friday

The mess with USProtect, which had been providing security guard services to the Social Security Administration keeps looking worse. The former chief officer of USProtect has pleaded guilty to bribing a contracting officer at the General Services Administration.

Apparently, the Social Security Administration stopped using USProtect just last Friday. Why did it take so long to drop them? USProtect officers had been in major criminal trouble since 2005! Its former chief financial officer has pleaded guilty to withholding information about felony convictions to get $150 million in federal contracts.

USProtect Defunct

From WUSA in Baltimore (emphasis added):

Federal prosecutors have moved to seize $6.9 million from a bank account owned by USProtect, two homes in Naples, Florida, and a boat owned by the past and present owners of an apparently defunct security contracting firm.

On Monday, 9NEWS NOW reported USProtect had locked its doors after being unable to make its payroll last week. Hundreds of employees are impacted. ...

In Washington, US Protect employed hundreds of Court Security Officers at most of the city's courthouses. The company also had contracts for several other courthouses scattered across the United States. In addition to the Department of Justice, US Protect also done business with the Dept. of Homeland Security, the US Air Force and the Social Security Administration. ...

Leaders of the International Union of United Government Security Officers of America tell 9NEWS NOW this is the second collapse of a major government security contractor in less than a year here in the Washington area. International President James Carney adds several more companies have gone under elsewhere around the country. Carney calls it a "growing epidemic" due to contractors under-bidding multi-million-dollar federal security contract proposals. He says sooner or later they find themselves unable to meet their largest expense: the payroll.

Tuesday's forfeiture move came as sentencings of three former company officials approach following earlier guilty pleas to major corruption charges. ...

Richard Hudec, who took over USProtect, later pleaded guilty to charges of concealing earlier felony convictions from federal contracting officials, as well as tax evasion charges.

I do not know whether this is adversely affecting Social Security Administration operations.

Jail Time For Threat

The Boston Globe reports that a Rutland, VT man has been sentenced for telling a therapist that he was going to blow up a Social Security office.

Defendants Cry Entrapment

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Federal and state prosecutors rounded up 83 people last month and charged them with ripping off the Social Security Administration by falsely claiming benefit checks were lost, getting a replacement, then cashing both.

But defendants are crying foul, saying Social Security knew fully well they had cashed both checks, but for years treated it as a debt issue rather than a crime, according to court filings. The agency required recipients to pay it back, but took no other action until they were charged, the filings say.

In a rarely used legal argument called entrapment by estoppel, defense attorneys contend the government encouraged people to break the law and then charged them.

Fraud Alleged In Texas

From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:

Dale A. Lowery, 54, and Brenda G. Lowery, 48, both of Troup, were indicted on charges of theft of government property, concealment of an event to secure disability benefits and making a false statement.

From March 2003 through June 2007 in Smith County, the Lowerys allegedly stole about $28,300 in Social Security disability benefit payments, for a benefit of a child to which they were not entitled, the indictment states. They also allegedly concealed that the child was no longer living with them and they made false statements to federal agents investigating the case.

Fraud In Missouri

From the Oberly, Missouri Monitor-Index:

Donald and Mary Hicks of Macon have been indicted on charges involving the theft of $86,534 of Social Security Disability benefits from a couple in their care says United States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway and Macon Police Chief Steve Olinger.

According to the indictment, in September 1998, Donald Hicks was selected as a representative payee by the Social Security Administration for a disabled couple who were recipients of Social Security Disability benefits.

The indictment alleges that between September 1998 and continuing through February 2006, Donald Hicks endorsed their checks and the money was stolen by Donald and Mary Hicks.

Alleged Scams In Wisconsin

From the Associated Press:

An investigation of potential fraud netted 83 people in Wisconsin accused of bilking the U.S. Social Security Administration of some $663,000, an agency investigator said Wednesday.

According to state and federal prosecutors, the defendants falsely claimed they didn’t receive their benefit checks, and then cashed their replacement checks along with the originals.

Fraud In St. Louis

From the St. Louis Business Journal:

Rose Shaw was sentenced to 33 months in prison for lying on social security applications, a mortgage loan application and forging the signature of a federal judge, U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway announced Friday.

Shaw, 50, of St. Charles, pleaded guilty in September 2007 to one felony count of social security fraud and one felony count of mortgage fraud. In addition to her prison sentence, Shaw was ordered to pay restitutions of $153,857.10 on the social security fraud and $70,718.94 on the mortgage fraud.

According to Hanaway, Shaw received monthly social security disability payments from January 1985 thought March 2006, by falsely claiming on the applications that she was mentally retarded and suffered from schizophrenia. The total amount of these benefits was approximately $153,000. Shaw was employed as a mortgage banker under the business name of Rose Shaw Enterprises LLC and Shaw Brokerage Real Estate Investment Firm LLC. On Aug. 25, 2005, Shaw forged the signature of Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Barry Schermer on a bankruptcy document.

ALJ Goosens Arrested

From the Pensacola News Journal:

An administrative judge remains on the job and a fourth-grade teacher has been suspended with pay after both were arrested in Escambia County on solicitation charges, officials said Thursday.

Robert Goosens, 57, of Navarre is an administrative judge with the Social Security Administration in Mobile. ... [The two men] were charged with misdemeanors.

The judge and teacher were among six men and three women arrested during an operation in the Brownsville area that began about 6 p.m. Wednesday and ended about midnight Thursday. The operation targeted johns and prostitutes.

     Update: In 2011 Goosens' petition to seal the records concerning his 2008 arrest was granted by a Florida court. The order indicates that Goosens was not convicted of any crime in connection with his arrest.

Bomb Threat In Ohio

There seems to be a lot of this going around. From the Daily Jeffersonian:

A bomb threat was reported this afternoon at the Social Security office on Woodlawn Avenue in downtown Cambridge [OH].

Local law enforcement and emergency personnel responded to the scene and an explosives sniffing dog was brought in.

No explosives were found and there are no reports of injuries.

The FBI is conducting an investigation.

Really Stupid Crooks

From the Associated Press:

Two men wheeled a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store and tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested on fraud charges, police said.

David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the apartment that O'Hare and Cintron shared to Pay-O-Matic, about a block away, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police.

The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said.

The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said.

A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body, and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said.

The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency medical technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare there, he said.

Cintron's body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner's office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, had died of natural causes within the previous 24 hours, Browne said.

Alert At Michigan Office

From the National Terror Alert Response Center (a blog):

A security guard notified authorities after he came across a suspicious package left at the new Social Security office on S. Telegraph Rd. this afternoon.

The area was cordoned off and the public was not allowed to enter the building, which is south of Seventh St. Officials have cleared the scene and the area has since been reopened after a police dog determined the package did not contain explosives, said Monroe County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Angerer.

Homeland Security officials were notified since a government building was involved and have reportedly taken away the package and will continue any investigation.

Sgt. Angerer said the parcel was delivered by the post office and reportedly left near or outside the office door. The security guard then became suspicious either based on the way it was left behind or because of the writing on the package.

Fraud Allegation In South Dakota

From the Rapid City Journal:

A Rapid City couple accused of collecting more than $120,000 in illegal Social Security payments now face federal charges.

Lonnie G. Holloman, 54, and Margaret R. Holloman, 52, pleaded not guilty in U.S. Magistrate Court to charges of conspiracy, Social Security fraud, false statement and theft of government funds.

According to federal court documents, the Hollomans are accused of fraudulently collecting $123,333 in Social Security Disability Income payments between November 1998 and July 2006.

Prosecutors say the couple reported to the Social Security Administration that Lonnie Holloman was unable to work because of a back injury in 1991. However, they say Holloman worked 40 hours per week between 1998 and 2001 for Doug Faul Trucking Company as a dispatcher and long-haul truck driver.

Group Home Fraud

From the Gainesville Sun:

Kehua Hu owned and operated Hu Group Homes, 1259 NW 60th St., from 2000 to 2004, providing long-term care for adults and children identified as retarded, psychiatric, self-injurious or physically challenged.

Hu admitted that during those four years, she was depositing her residents' Social Security checks into her checking account at Campus USA Credit Union, stealing a total of $215,500 for her personal use. ...

Now Hu faces 18 charges of payee fraud. Each charge carries up to five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

Fraud Allegation In South Carolina

From the Times and Democrat of Orangeburg, SC:

Latoya Shantell Green, 23, of Orangeburg has been charged in a one-count indictment alleging that between June 2003 and May 2007 she stole approximately $23,731 from the government by forging and cashing 47 Social Security checks that were payable to her deceased aunt, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

Fraud In Illinois

From WREX-TV in Rockford, IL:

A Rockford woman pleads guilty to stealing social security benefits.

Joan Jarrett, 61, got about more than $79,000 illegally. Investigators say she applied for supplemental security income benefits in 1990 because she wasn't living with her husband at the time.

Even though they started living together again the next year, Jarrett got the benefits until 2005. Jarrett even admitted to lying to the Social Security Administration about living with her husband.

She has to pay the money back and could get as much as 10 years in prison.

SSA Duped

From The Red Tape Chronicles at MSNBC:

Ten suspects were indicted last week in Seattle for allegedly impersonating consumers and obtaining their bank records, tax returns and Social Security earnings statements.

According to the indictment, the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration were repeatedly tricked into coughing up very sensitive documents. ...

In all, 12,000 consumers were victimized by the defendants from 2004-2007, the indictment alleges.

At the center of the crime, according to the indictment, were a Emilio and Brandy Torrella, a Seattle couple, and their employee, Steven Berwick. Operating as BNT Investigations in Belfair, Wash., the three allegedly took orders from private investigators around the country and filled them by impersonating the targeted consumers. The other investigators then resold the information.

Social Security Employees Drawing Social Security Benefits

The Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently did a study of Social Security employees drawing Social Security benefits. The vast majority of these folks were perfectly entitled to what they were drawing from Social Security. Remember that there is no retirement earnings test for those who have reached full retirement age and Social Security has a fair number of employees who are well into their 60s and beyond. But there were problems cases and OIG wants to prosecute. From the report:

Overall, SSA ensured that employees who are also entitled to OASDI or SSI are paid the appropriate benefits. However, we identified 8 employees (out of 194 who received benefits) who were overpaid $245,311 in OASDI benefits because of their earnings. By stopping these benefits, the Agency will save $124,176 over the next 12 months.

We referred these eight employees to our Office of Investigations (OI) for criminal investigation. As of November 2007, three of these eight cases were with the United States (U.S.) Attorney's Office or the District Attorney's Office for prosecution due to possible fraud. For another three cases, the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the cases and they were being handled by SSA administratively. Also, in the remaining two cases, SSA was taking administrative action.

Fraud In Montana

From KPAX in Missoula, Montana:

A Montana State Prison inmate, who illegally received about $14,000 in Social Security benefits, has been sentenced to 16 months in federal prison.

James Hendershot was also ordered to pay restitution of $16,000.

The federal term will be consecutive to his state sentence of five years on a 2004 conviction for aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

It is unlawful to collect Social Security while in prison.

Fraud In Arizona

From the East Valley Tribune:

A former Scottsdale resident was convicted Wednesday of stealing from and lying to the government when she obtained Social Security benefits for her disabled son who didn’t qualify for them.

Denise Crouse, 49, now of Georgia, was convicted Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court after a three-day trial.

According to Attorney General Terry Goddard, Crouse lived in Scottsdale and Glendale between 1995 and 1999, where she collected more than $20,000 in Supplemental Security Income for her son, ineligible for the funds because he already had a $1 million trust fund.

During trial, Crouse testified that she held assets worth between $1 million and $2 million, not including the trust fund.