Those Cheating Grannies

     From a recent report by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):

We reviewed a random sample of 250 Title II spousal or widow(er) beneficiaries to determine whether they reported their marriages to SSA while they were receiving Title XVI payments as single individuals. Of the 250 beneficiaries, we identified 41 who did not appear to have reported their marriages to SSA while they were receiving Title XVI payments and may have received improper Title XVI payments because of spousal income.

We referred these 41 beneficiaries to our Office of Investigations (OI) to investigate their living arrangements while they were receiving Title XVI payments. OI determined seven beneficiaries were not living with their spouses so were not overpaid, and one beneficiary had potentially committed fraud, resulting in a $104,998 overpayment.

OI did not pursue investigations on the remaining 33 beneficiaries because the potential overpayments were below the applicable U.S. Attorneys’ thresholds for prosecution and/or the periods of potential overpayment were outside the statute of limitations. Since OI did not pursue investigations, we referred these 33 beneficiaries to SSA to assess any overpayments. Of the 33 beneficiaries, SSA determined

• 22 were not living with their spouses so were not overpaid, and

• for 7, there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a review. For the remaining four beneficiaries, SSA’s review was ongoing as of July 2016.

Given that our audit did not identify a significant number of beneficiaries who were living with their spouses and overpaid while receiving Title XVI p ayments, we are not making a recommendation.

     Potentially, there are many people who would be affected if Social Security were to start trying to catch widows and widowers who failed to report marriages to the agency. There could be many overpayments and criminal prosecutions. Is Social Security willing to go there? Does Congress want them to? Is disability fraud the only fraud that Congress is interested in?

Closing That Office For A Day Will Really Deter Vandalism

     From WLUK:

The Social Security Office in Green Bay was closed Tuesday after graffiti was found spray-painted on the building.

Police say the decision to close was made by social security officials.

The phrase "bomb the system," was scrawled on the brick building.

Police say anytime the word "bomb" is used, it's very concerning.

Stay Classy Eric Conn, Stay Classy

     Eric Conn's defense team is getting ready for a trial on the criminal charges brought against him for his representation of Social Security disability claimants. They're hired an investigator who is himself under indictment in an unrelated case.

Former HOCALJ Pleads Guilty

     From a Department of Justice press release:

A former social security Chief Administrative Law Judge pleaded guilty in federal court today for conspiring to retaliate against a former employee of the Social Security Administration (SSA) who provided information regarding potential corruption and fraud to federal investigators. ...

Charlie Paul Andrus, 66, of Huntington, West Virginia, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to retaliate against an informant.  Andrus had been an administrative law judge with the SSA for nearly 28 years, where he was responsible for adjudicating claims for disability benefits on behalf of the SSA.  In 1997, Andrus was promoted to the position of Chief Administrative Law Judge for the hearing office located in Huntington. ...

Andrus admitted that at the time of his demotion, he was aware that an SSA employee from the hearing office was meeting with investigators and relaying information about potential federal offenses.  According to his plea agreement, Andrus met with Conn shortly after the article was published and the two devised and implemented a plan to discredit the informant.  According to court documents, the plan involved filming the informant violating a program that allowed employees to work from home, with the hope that the informant would be terminated as a result.  By pleading guilty today, Andrus admitted that he was aware that the SSA employee reported truthful information to federal investigators and that he wanted to retaliate against the employee by interfering with the employee’s employment and livelihood.

Shots Fired Outside Social Security Office

     From the Sun Herald of Gulfport, MS:

Moss Point Police Chief Art McClung said shots were fired Wednesday in the parking lot of the U.S. Social Security Administration office at 6000 Mississippi 63.

McClung said a man was conducting business in the office when he became angered and left the building, saying something to the security guard as he exited the building.

“He went outside and went to his car and got a gun and discharged it three or four times in the air and then got in his vehicle and left,” McClung said. “The shots were fired into the air and no one was injured, nor was any property destroyed.”

McClung said police have a good idea who fired the shots and are pursuing him.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/crime/article82508227.html#storylink=cpy

Stealing From The Disabled

     From the Tampa Bay Times:

The former chief financial officer of a program for disabled people admits in a court paper that he and others diverted $617,435 in Social Security payments, raiding client personal accounts for a decade to cover operating expenses.

Frank Pannullo, 69, is the third employee of the now-defunct Hillsborough Association for Retarded Citizens to enter into a federal plea agreement. ...

HARC, which had been renamed the Hillsborough Achievement and Resource Centers before it closed in 2013, ran group homes and community programs, caring for people with disabilities such as Down syndrome or Alzheimer's disease. ...

Residents had individual bank accounts. Each month, HARC deducted $637 for expenses, leaving the rest behind.

But if accumulated savings topped $2,000, clients were at risk of losing need-based Supplemental Security Income.

So HARC put away the excess in a separate, pooled account that collected about $617,435 over the course of 10 years. ...

Not long after the account's 2001 creation, Pannullo and the CEO began taking money out of it to feed HARC's operating fund, according to the plea agreement. ...

Social Security Subcommittee Schedules Hearing On "Protecting Social Security from Waste, Fraud, and Abuse"

     The House Social Security Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for 10:00 on May 18 on "Protecting Social Security from Waste, Fraud, and Abuse." No specifics are given at this point. At the Senate Homeland Security and Government Operations Committee hearing last week there was a mention of some fraud case that would be bigger than the allegations against Eric Conn but no specifics were mentioned. Perhaps there will be some indictment or indictments this week.

Man Jailed For Threatening Personnel At Social Security Field Office

     From some television station in Cleveland that prefers to hide its call letters on its website:

Charges have now been filed against a man who has been in the Cleveland jail under investigation by Homeland Security. Investigators accuse Ramong Frett of threatening to kill a guard and others at a Social Security office on Shaker Boulevard. Police say he also “threatened four Federal Police Officers…and families of officers…”.

     It's just my personal peeve but why do television stations hide their call letters? "Fox 8" isn't a real name. Undoubtedly, there are a number of Fox affiliates across the country on channel 8.

Trite But True: Crime Doesn't Pay

     From a press release:

Sophia Dix, 35, of Newport News, pleaded guilty today [April 25] to charges of wire fraud.

According to a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Dix was a service representative for the Social Security Administration (SSA) in its Norfolk office.  In her position, Dix had computer access to SSA beneficiary information, including bank account data for the direct deposit of benefit payments.  From April 2014, through August 2015, Dix rerouted over $56,000 in other persons’ SSA benefits to her own bank account. 

Dix was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 9, and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison when sentenced on July 21. ...

They Read The Writing On The Wall

     That graffiti covered men's room at the Social Security field office in Las Vegas? They're going to fix it.

Florida ALJ Arrested

     From the Tampa Tribune:

An administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration in Tampa was arrested late Sunday and charged with driving under the influence, police said. Two witnesses saw Glen H. Watkins, 42, strike a parked car while driving a 2014 Honda Pilot on Davis Boulevard at 11:14 p.m., Tampa police said. Watkins’ blood-alcohol content was later measured at 0.151 and 0.163, records show. The legal limit for Florida drivers is 0.08.

The Writing Is On The Wall

     From KTNV in Las Vegas:

In a story that's only on 13 action news, a federal crime happening inside a federal facility and no one is doing anything about it.

Contact 13 Chief Investigator Darcy Spears exposes the government agency ignoring the writing on the wall. 

"When I went in, I was actually dumbfounded."

Travis Knapp went to the Social Security office on Buffalo near Charleston because of one crime.

"My son's social got stolen."

But while there, he saw evidence of another. 

The scene? The men's restroom.  

"It was completely covered in graffiti. The mirror just completely etched into. The walls--the stall walls and everything." 

It's a federal offense to deface a federal building. And against state law, too. But the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department says no one from the Social Security office has reported the crime. 

Police have a special graffiti investigation unit to tackle what they call the most costly property crime in southern Nevada--with a high success rate of identifying and arresting graffiti vandals. 

In fact, Nevada has the toughest graffiti laws in the nation. 

But Social Security hasn't said a word.

Travis believes there's another crime going on here--apathy.

"If there's something going on in your line of work, be it graffiti or somebody stealing from your company, and you're sitting there watching it and you don't report it to a higher-up to have it taken care of, you're just as much a part of the problem as the person doing so."

      Is there a name for a writing style which glorifies almost every sentence with its own paragraph? Maybe I shouldn't be too critical. It was written for on air delivery.

Conn Out On Bail

     Eric Conn has been released from jail on $1.25 million bail.

Whistleblowers Allege Lack Of Accountability

     From WSAZ:

A decade after first sounding the alarm about an alleged scheme to defraud the Social Security Administration over disability claims, Jennifer Griffith and Sarah Carver are now speaking out. 

In 2011, Griffith and Carver filed a whistleblower lawsuit against attorney Eric Conn, former Social Security Administrative Judge David Daugherty and Psychologist Dr. Alfred Adkins ...

Despite the arrests, both Griffith and Carver say the current indictments aren't enough. ...

"I do think there should be more people because there were more people within the agency that were allowed to either retire early or were promoted," Sarah Carver said. "Several of the managers that were in management throughout this time that this was all going on, several were still there or have received major promotions. It's the lack of accountability that I feel is an issue." 

After exposing this scheme, Griffith and Carver say they were harassed while still working at the Huntington Social Security office by their superiors and even their own fellow co-workers....

Carver says during the investigation, she was forced to work in a room by herself at the Social Security office eight hours a day for 10 months. She says during that time, Eric Conn and others hired a private investigator to follow her around, in hopes of getting her fired from her job....

Eric Conn Arrested

     From WSAZ:

Disability attorney Eric Conn, who has faced accusations of colluding with a judge to rig Social Security cases, is in custody Monday night in the Pike County Detention Center, according to the jail’s website. 

Conn is being held for U.S. Marshals, the jail reports. 

He was booked at 7:15 p.m. Monday. No bond has been set. 

The charges against Conn are conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, destruction of records in a federal investigation, false statements, transactional money laundering, and conspiracy to structure currency transactions.

     Update: Here's a link to the indictment. David Daugherty and Alfred Adkins were also indicted.It's alleged that Conn was giving former ALJ Daugherty $9,000 to $9,500 per month in cash. If that's accurate, both Conn and Daugherty were amazingly stupid but if that's what they did, I don't understand why it took so long to indict.

The Real Social Security Disability Fraud?

     Steve Berenson of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law has written for the DePaul Journal for Social Justice about what he considers The Real Social Security Disability Fraud(s).

Florida Man Alkeged To Have Stolen $2.2 Milllion In Social Security Checks

     From the Tampa Tribune:

A Tampa postal employee has been charged in a scheme involving more than $2.2 million in stolen Social Security checks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said today.  

If convicted on the charges of theft of government property and theft of mail. Stacy Darnell Mitchell, 48, faces up to 15 years in prison, the office said.

Claims Rep Accused Of Fraud

     From the Reading, Pennsylvania Eagle:

Federal investigators have charged a Bernville man working for the Social Security Administration of allegedly defrauding the agency of more than $6,000.
Miguel Gutierrez, 42, was charged Friday by the Eastern District of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia with three counts of wire fraud for the incidents that began in October. - See more at: http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/bernville-man-charged-with-defrauding-social-security-administration#sthash.ObpE4ebl.dpuf

 Federal investigators have charged a Bernville man working for the Social Security Administration of allegedly defrauding the agency of more than $6,000.

Miguel Gutierrez, 42, was charged Friday by the Eastern District of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia with three counts of wire fraud for the incidents that began in October. ...

Gutierrez was employed as a claims representative in the Social Security Field Office in Reading when he allegedly used access to the agency's computer system to redirect benefit payments intended for third-party individuals into his own bank account. He allegedly received three stolen benefit payments totaling approximately $6,166.66 from October to December. ...

Gutierrez was employed as a claims representative in the Social Security Field Office in Reading when he allegedly used access to the agency's computer system to redirect benefit payments intended for third-party individuals into his own bank account. He allegedly received three stolen benefit payments totaling approximately $6,166.66 from October to December. - See more at: http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/bernville-man-charged-with-defrauding-social-security-administration#sthash.ObpE4ebl.dpuf

Federal investigators have charged a Bernville man working for the Social Security Administration of allegedly defrauding the agency of more than $6,000.
Miguel Gutierrez, 42, was charged Friday by the Eastern District of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia with three counts of wire fraud for the incidents that began in October. - See more at: http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/bernville-man-charged-with-defrauding-social-security-administration#sthash.ObpE4ebl.dpuf

Federal investigators have charged a Bernville man working for the Social Security Administration of allegedly defrauding the agency of more than $6,000.
Miguel Gutierrez, 42, was charged Friday by the Eastern District of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia with three counts of wire fraud for the incidents that began in October. - See more at: http://www.readingeagle.com/news/article/bernville-man-charged-with-defrauding-social-security-administration#sthash.ObpE4ebl.dpuf

Man Convicted Of Stealing More Than $1.5 Million From Social Security and VA

     From a press release issued by Social Security's Office of Inspector General:

United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Dennis Paulsen, age 45, of Blythewood, was convicted of stealing more than $1.5 million from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration following a seven-day jury trial in federal court in Columbia [SC].  ...

After being diagnosed [with Multiple Sclerosis] and discharged from the Navy in the early 1990s, Paulsen began receiving a monthly VA benefit as a result of his diagnosis.  Unsatisfied with the amount he was receiving, Paulsen began a pattern of malingering by claiming his MS rendered him unable to use his hands or feet in any respect.  Still unhappy with the money he was awarded, Paulsen ramped up his claims, lying to his doctors, presenting himself as house- and wheelchair-bound, and making false claims that he required daily professional medical care to live until his benefits were increased to the maximum disability payments available to a Veteran.  At the same time, Paulsen used the same feigned impairments to convince the Social Security Administration that he was entitled to Social Security disability benefits.  Despite his feigned claims of impairments and presenting himself in a wheelchair to his doctors, Paulsen lived in a non-handicap accessible residence and was able to ride his motorcycle and jet skis plus play baseball and golf on a regular basis. ...

The extensive investigation by the VA and SSA included undercover agents, surveillance, and photographs and video footage from banks, stores, and the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Family photographs kept by Paulsen’s ex-wife were also obtained showing Paulsen’s many activities with his family, playing baseball, and participating in a Marine Mud Run. Paulsen testified, in a wheelchair, for four hours and called three doctors as expert witnesses in an attempt to support his claim that he was and had been totally disabled. The guilty verdict reflects that the jury did not find this testimony credible.

     MS is a strange disease. A person with relapsing and remitting MS can have dramatic fluctuations in their functional abilities. They can legitimately go from having few symptoms to being in a wheelchair to again having few symptoms over the course of a few weeks. A jury convicted this man so I assume the evidence against him was strong but an MS patient who tells a story of severe symptoms that come and go may well be telling the truth. If you deal with MS patients at all, you really get struck by how strange MS is.

Miami Psychiatrist Indicted For Social Security Fraud

     From the Miami Herald:

A Miami psychiatrist who became a national symbol of over-prescribing was indicted this week by a federal grand jury for allegedly running a racket that defrauded numerous public programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Social Security Administration and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The psychiatrist, Dr. Fernando Mendez-Villamil, 48, and three other Miami-Dade residents whom he employed in his Coral Way office, were charged with an elaborate scheme to provide false diagnoses of debilitating psychiatric conditions that allowed numerous people to fraudulently qualify for Social Security disability benefits, Medicare and Medicaid, and to be exempted from testing requirements for becoming naturalized U.S. citizens, according to the grand jury indictment filed in Miami federal court on Thursday....

A third employee, Arnaldo Oscar Jimenez, 57, of Hialeah, also allegedly recruited individuals who wanted to fraudulently obtain Social Security disability benefits....

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article53792465.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article53792465.html#storylink=cpyA third employee, Arnaldo Oscar Jimenez, 57, of Hialeah, also allegedly recruited individuals who wanted to fraudulently obtain Social Security disability benefits.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/article53792465.html#storylink=cpy