Getting In Is Easier If You Make An Appointment

     From WRAL:

Police arrested a Chapel Hill [NC] man early Thursday after they said he tried to break into a Social Security Administration office in Durham [NC] through the building's roof.
Brendan Phillip Cannell, 25, was being treated at a hospital Thursday for an arm injury he suffered when he jumped from the roof trying to flee police. Authorities said he would face several charges upon his release from the hospital.

Officers responded to the Social Security building, at 3004 Tower Blvd., at about 1 a.m. after an alarm went off. When they arrived, they heard loud banging sounds and saw a man moving around on the roof of the building.

The man refused to comply with officers' demands to come down, so they fired shots at him, believing him to be a potential imminent deadly threat, police said. He wasn't wounded by the gunfire.

Police apprehended the man shortly after he jumped from the roof.

A hole about a foot wide was cut into the building's roof, but metal sheeting underneath the roof appears to have prevented further access to the building. Police also found a second, smaller hole in the roof. ...

Hearing On Puerto Rico Fraud Allegations

     The House Social Security Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for 2:30 on September 19 concerning the recent allegations of a number of fraudulent Social Security disability claims in Puerto Rico. The hearing notice says that employees involved in adjudicating disability claims noticed that they were receiving nearly identical medical reports on different claimants. The allegation is that the physicians involved were receiving $150 to $500 per fraudulent report. If that's true, all I can say is dumb, dumb, dumb. How stupid did they think Social Security is? Why would any physician with good sense risk serious criminal charges for such a small amount of money? Dumb, dumb, dumb. I'll bet that most of the claimants involved could have been approved based upon honest medical evidence. I've seen that sort of claimant. There aren't that many of them out there but they exist. It was once said of boxing promoter Don King that "... he would rather put a dishonest quarter into his pocket than an honest dollar." That's the mentality that some people have.

Big Theft Of Social Security Checks

     Tampa police discovered about 175 stolen Social Security benefit checks, totaling $165,926, at the scene of an attempted murder. The attempted murder appears to have been drug related. Local police report that a total of about 300 checks had been stolen. How they were stolen, what the thief or thieves intended to do with the checks and what happened to the other 125 or so checks is unclear.
     It couldn't be easy to cash even one stolen Social Security check. Banks and check cashing services demand to see ID before handing over cash or even opening an account. I don't know how you would cash dozens of these checks without getting caught but the jails are full of people who tried to do really stupid things.

IG Catches Alleged Murderer

     From the Albuquerque Journal:

The son of an 88-year-old New Mexico man has admitted killing his father and dismembering the body on the floor of his bedroom with an electric tree trimming chain saw, authorities said.

Carlsbad police said Steven Michael Allumbaugh, 62, recently told investigators that he struck his father, Thomas Luther Allumbaugh, during an argument in January 2012 and he fell against a metal chair in a shower.

According to a criminal complaint, Allumbaugh then dismembered the body and buried it in his backyard to conceal the death. The complaint also says he hid the death for a year so that he could continue withdrawing his father’s Social Security retirement funds.

The younger Allumbaugh, was arrested Aug. 7 following an investigation by the Social Security Administration, the Office of the Inspector General said. ...

Don't Even Think About It

     From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

Federal employee and Conyers, Ga., resident Cordell Fleming pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to extorting money from people due Social Security benefits. ...

Fleming offered to “expedite” the processing time of SSI payments to SSI beneficiaries and SSI beneficiary payees in exchange for a fee. In an attempt to make the expedited SSI payments appear legitimate, Fleming frequently created false documents that purportedly justified the expedited disbursement of SSI payments.

During the course of the scheme from October 2012 to April 2013, Fleming extorted and attempted to extort money (in amounts ranging from $500 to $1,800) from at least nine SSI beneficiaries or their representative payees. ...

68 Arrests In Alleged Disability Fraud In Puerto Rico

     From the Wall Street Journal:

Federal agents arrested 68 people in Puerto Rico on Wednesday morning as part of an investigation into alleged abuse of the Social Security Disability Insurance program, two people familiar with the operation said. 

More arrests are expected. The bust appears to be one of the largest disability fraud cases ever assembled by federal investigators. 

The identity of those arrested couldn't be learned immediately. One person familiar with the arrests said it included two psychiatrists, one physiatrist, a secretary, and a person who works to help people win disability benefits. The person said the probe centers on alleged abuse of the federal program over several years that could have helped scores of people obtain benefits who should not have qualified.

     Update: From an Associated Press article:

Those charged include three doctors and 71 Social Security claimants accused of receiving more than $2 million in disability benefit payments. But the biggest haul allegedly went to a former Social Security worker accused of taking $2.5 million while directing claimants to doctors who would file false claims. ...

The former Social Security worker claimed to help clients seeking benefits and directed them to doctors who would earn up to $500 for each fake claim, said Ed Ryan, New York-based special agent in charge of the Inspector General's office of the Social Security Administration's investigations office.

Rodriguez said agents took videos of people that belied their claimed ailments. She said one who claimed back problems was a gym owner who posted a picture of himself on Facebook lifting a girl above his head. ...

Rep. Sam Johnson, a Texas Republican and the Social Security chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee, said he will discuss the Puerto Rican case during a September hearing.

"Clearly this isn't a case of just a few bad apples," he said in a statement. "That such fraud could occur in the first place raises serious and troubling questions regarding Social Security's management of the disability program."

Investigation In Puerto Rico

     From the Wall Street Journal:

Federal investigators on Wednesday searched six facilities in Puerto Rico as part of a broadening probe into potential widespread disability fraud.

Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Social Security inspector general’s office, among others, searched five doctors’ offices and one other location as part of their sweep, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Puerto Rico said. The spokeswoman wouldn’t comment further, saying it was part of a continuing investigation and that the six search warrants were sealed. ...

In 2006, just 36% of initial applicants in Puerto Rico were awarded benefits. In December 2010, the award rate had jumped to 69%. By 2010, nine of the top 10 U.S. ZIP Codes for workers receiving disability benefits were on the island. ...

The characteristics of Puerto Rico’s beneficiaries differed from other areas. In addition to the large clusters in certain zip codes, federal data showed that 33.3% of Puerto Rican beneficiaries qualified because of “mood disorders,” a rate that is at least 10 percentage points higher than any U.S. state.

Sheriff Pleads Not Guilty

     From the Mobile Press-Register:

Washington County Sheriff Richard Stringer formally pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he helped an employee evade Social Security rules capping the amount of retirement money he could earn.

Authorities allege that Stringer agreed to put the employee’s wife on the payroll at the Sheriff’s Office and divert part of the man’s income to her.

Stinger has denied the allegations and vowed to remain in office.

Man Arrested For Threatening Ann Arbor Office

     From a WDIV in Detroit:

Federal investigators say Daniel Norton is a dangerous man who may have been planning a mass murder and escape into the wilderness.

The Ypsilanti man was out on bond for making violent threats against workers at an Ann Arbor Social Security office. Then, on Wednesday, Homeland Protective Services looked in the trunk of his car and found an arsenal of weapons similar to an AR-15 assault rifle, body armor, ammunition, a generator and meals ready to eat like the ones used by the military....

Norton allegedly called into the Ann Arbor office saying if he did not receive benefits for heart medicine he would have a tactical response. He faxed the office an extensive litany of alleged expert certificates in weaponry and combat. ...

Allegation Of SSI Fraud Involved In Cleveland Kidnapping

     From some television station in Cleveland that doesn't post its call letters on its website:

Sources confirm a federal probe is underway into thousands of dollars in social security income that may have been illegally obtained while Cleveland kidnapping victim Michelle Knight was held hostage.

The social security income is  most likely in the form of supplemental security income provided for adults and children with low income and who have disabilities.

Sources said the Office of Inspector General at the Social Security Administration has been conducting an "open investigation." If there is sufficient proof of a crime, the findings will be turned over to the U.S. Attorneys Office for prosecution.

Knight was described by family members as having a mild disability and was the mother of a young son at the time of her disappearance.

It's not know who was behind allegedly profiting from the social security income during the 10-year period when Knight was held at Ariel Castro's Seymour Avenue house.

SSA Employee Sentenced To Five Years In Prison

     From the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

A former Social Security Administration worker caught on camera masturbating to child pornography while on the clock has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Caught with a staggering 3,772 photos and videos showing children being sexually assaulted, Thomas Barrett Jr. was investigated after his Internet trolling for child porn brought a computer virus onto a Social Security network.

Investigators found Barrett, 50, had been searching for child porn on his work computer in November and set up a camera watching his work station, located at the Social Security Administration’s Seattle office.

Shortly thereafter, Barrett was recorded fondling himself while viewing photos of a man sexually assaulting a young girl. Prosecutors noted Barrett appeared to bounce between the child porn and his actual work in an apparent effort to hide the rape photos from his coworkers.

Who Killed The Rabbit?

     From the Rome (GA) News-Tribune:

Rome police reported that vandals left a dead rabbit for staff to find at the Social Security office on Riverside Parkway on Friday morning and also left the water running outside. 

According to reports, the rabbit was found on a window sill behind the building along with a bag of shredded paper torn and scattered around the building Friday morning.

You Crazy Right Wingers Are Such A Hoot!

     From The Examiner of Independence, MO:

U.S. District Court Judge Brian C. Wimes sentenced Charles Daniel Koss, 63, of Independence to seven years in federal prison and ordered Koss to pay $212,987 in restitution to the Social Security Administration and the Department of the Treasury. ...

Koss began receiving Social Security disability payments in 1987 for myoneural disorder and hypertension. In 1994, according to court documents, Koss began operating Embassy Mortgage, a real estate business, with his wife in Blue Springs. Koss was working as a loan officer and office manager for the business.

According to the indictment, when Koss learned that he would have to repay the government, he created a false negotiable instrument – which he called a “Registered Private Money Order” – purporting to draw on a bogus trust account held by the U.S. Treasury. He allegedly utilized the false negotiable instrument as payment for his debt and mailed it to the Social Security Administration.

Koss subscribed to what is known as the redemption theory, the indictment says, which claims that a “Birthright Trust” is created with the U.S. Treasury when parents of a newborn child pledge the child’s birth certificate to the government. Redemption theory involves bogus claims that when the U.S. government abandoned the gold standard in 1933, it pledged its citizens as collateral so it could borrow money. The movement also asserts that common citizens can gain access to funds in secret accounts using obscure procedures and regulations.

According to the indictment, adherents of the redemption theory sometimes call themselves “sovereign citizens.” The sovereign citizen movement is a loosely organized collection of groups and individuals who have adopted anarchist ideology. Its adherents claim that virtually all existing government in the United States is illegitimate and they seek to “restore” an idealized, minimalist government that never actually existed.

Man Found Guilty In Shooting Outside SSA Headquarters

     From the Baltimore Sun:

A Baltimore County man was convicted Wednesday in the nonfatal shooting of an employee outside the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn in 2011.

Gary Stokes, 23, was found guilty by a Baltimore County jury in the shooting that caused the Social Security complex on Security Boulevard to go on lockdown for more than an hour.

Police said Stokes robbed Obie Blackmon of his cellphone and then shot him in the arm as he was taking an afternoon walk in woods near the campus.

Former Lawmaker Pleads Guilty To Social Security Fraud

     From CNS:

Raymond E. Salva, a former Democratic member of the Missouri House of Representatives, has pleaded guilty to illegally taking $58,816 in federal disability payments while he was working as a state legislator earning $30,000 a year, according to the Office of the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration. ...

In May 2003, about five months after he started working as a state representative, the SSA conducted a review to find out whether Salva was still eligible for disability payments. “As part of that review, Salva completed a form in which he affirmed that he was not able to return to work and that he had not done any work since being disabled,” reads a press release from the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). ...

An Original Type Of Fraud

     From Inside NOVA, which, I think, stands for Northern Virginia:

A former Woodbridge woman was sentenced Friday to one day in prison, plus three years of supervised release, for committing Social Security fraud by helping her husband claim he was dead. ...

According to documents on file at U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Rios’ husband, Luis Melecio Rios Guizado, was wanted on charges of taking indecent liberties with a minor in Prince William County in 2007 when he fled to Peru, his native country.

Rios visited Guizado there and her gave her a false Peruvian death certificate, claiming he had died, “in order to have the charges filed against him in Prince William County dropped,” according to a news release from the Social Security Administration. ...

According to court documents, Rios presented the fake death certificate in Prince William General District Court in May 2007, in order to quash her husband’s outstanding warrant. She then presented the fraudulent document to the Social Security Administration in June 2007, so she could collect survivors’ benefits for herself and her five children, court documents state.

Authorities say that Rios and her children collected $127,000 in Social Security benefits between June 2007 and May 2011.

Problems With MySocialSecurity

     From the testimony of Theresa Gruber, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Operations, Social Security Administration to the Senate Special Committee on Aging:

In May 2013, we added key measures to combat fraud through our on line MySocialSecurity portal. For example, we have added unique and stringent fraud protection tools to our online registration and authentication technology. Because of these changes, we have seen a significant drop in the volume of successful MySocialSecurity registrations - indicating we may be preventing some fraudulent accounts from being established. We also established an executive-level workgroup tasked to identify additional fraud deterrent measures to explore and implement, including items recommended by OIG. We will be implementing several of these real-time fraud prevention measures by the end of the year. In August 2013, we will eliminate the ability change payment information via the internet for users who have a block in place.

     Some things to note here. At the moment, putting a block on one's online MySocialSecurity "portal" doesn't prevent some stranger from using one's online MySocialSecurity "portal" to divert your Social Security benefits to a bank account they control. Are you kidding me? What does a "block" mean if it doesn't block this? Why is Social Security even pretending that a "block" is of some use when they know it is worthless and they don't have a plan to change this situation for at least another couple of months? Second, now that Social Security has implemented new fraud prevention measures, they've seen a significant drop in online registrations. This indicates one of two things: either fraudulent registrations were a significant part of all registrations or a significant number of those who want to establish an account for genuine reasons are being thwarted by the new security measures. Either way, this isn't good news.

Threatening To Rape Little Girls Isn't Cool

     From WOOD-TV:

A Battle Creek man may spend up to five years in prison after threatening to "rape little girls" in a message to the Social Security Administration. 

In December 2012, Timothy Burgess sent a message via the Internet to the Social Security Administration office in Maryland, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. 

In the message, he said he wanted more money. He threatened to rape and implied he may murder "little girls" if his demands were not met.

Problems With Debit Cards

     From the Center for Public Integrity:

A government initiative aimed at saving money by eliminating paper checks is hurting some recipients of federal benefits while earning the bank that operates the program millions in fees charged to consumers.

The U.S. Treasury Department has been urging people who collect Social Security and other benefits to switch to direct deposit rather than rely on mailed checks, to save millions of dollars a year in administrative costs.

But beneficiaries without bank accounts — and even some who do have accounts — are being pressured into using prepaid debit cards offered by Comerica Bank, an effort that is shifting costs to elderly people, veterans and other vulnerable consumers. ...

Between October 2011 and the end of August 2012, the Social Security inspector general received more than 18,000 reports of unauthorized changes or suspected attempts to make unauthorized changes to payments. Treasury says it put new procedures in place in January 2012 to reduce fraud. Yet early this year, the Social Security inspector general’s office said it was still receiving more than 50 such reports a day.

It's Time To Stop Allowing Any New Online Accounts

     From the Braintree  Patriot Ledger:

When the form letter from Social Security arrived, Lillian Broide almost didn’t give it a close reading. She has been receiving lots of official forms and letters lately, after going through several hospital stays and rehab programs.

“I did open it and found out there is a fraud going on that is tagging seniors,” Broide said when she called recently.

The letter on May 22 was confirming that she had recently opened an online Social Security account. It said she did not have to do anything unless this was not correct and told her to contact Social Security immediately if she had not in fact opened an online account.

“I had never gone online with my Social Security,” she said. She called right away and was shocked to discover that someone had opened an online account using her Social Security number. A few days later, she also found out someone had changed the bank account where her monthly Social Security check was to be deposited.

     What is it going to take to wake up Social Security management? This sort of fraud is exploding. It's irresponsible to allow this to continue. Stop allowing new online accounts until there's a fix! What are you waiting for?