A former Social Security Administration (“SSA”) employee with 23 years’ experience took advantage of her knowledge and defrauded taxpayers out of more than $10,000. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin woman had most recently been operations supervisor at an SSA Teleservice Center.
The fraud relates to the woman’s involvement in taking benefits intended for a man whom she did not know. In fact, the benefits should not have been going to the man in the first place –he was ineligible and later in jail.
Beginning in October 2008, the woman designated herself as recipient of the man’s Supplemental Security Income (“SSI”) benefits. The man had recently left prison after serving time for federal charges, but was not eligible for SSI benefits because he exceeded SSI income limits. The man had recently received $15,000 from his deceased mother’s life insurance policy. Additional information on SSI or SSDI disability benefits requirements is available from a Tulsa Social Security attorney.
The SSA worker knew about the insurance money, but had herself declared the recipient of the SSI money nevertheless. In January 2009, the man went back to prison for violating terms of his probation. He remained there until May 2010. Under SSA regulations, prisoners are not to receive SSI benefits, yet the SSA worker never told the SSA about the man’s status, so she continued to receive his benefits.
At one point, during the summer of 2009, the SSA found out about the fraud and had the woman pay back a little over $1,000. She did, but then later filed a claim for $7,300 in expenses on behalf of the man who was in prison at the time. In pleading guilty to one count of defrauding the government, the woman claimed that she was using the checks to pay for the man’s rent while he was in prison.
Troutman & Troutman, P.C. – Tulsa Social Security Disability lawyers
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