A woman kept collecting her father’s Social Security benefits without interruption for 25 years — until federal agents confronted her, prosecutors said.
The 63-year-old hid her father’s death from the state of New Mexico after he died at Crownpoint Healthcare Facility, a hospital where she worked, in October 1996, court documents show.
She stole $551,436 in Social Security Administration Retirement Insurance Benefits paid to her father as a result, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.
A judge sentenced the woman, of Crownpoint, to five years of unsupervised probation and ordered her to pay the same amount she stole in restitution, the attorney’s office announced in a June 8 news release.
McClatchy News contacted the woman’s attorney for comment on June 8 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
Her sentencing comes after she pleaded guilty to Social Security fraud on Feb. 8, prosecutors said.
Ahead of the sentencing, prosecutors argued that since she worked at a hospital, the woman was aware of the “obligation” to report her father’s death, court filings show.
However, she didn’t do so and went on to make herself the co-owner of her father’s bank account and acquired several debit cards linked to that account, according to a sentencing memo filed by the government.
On Dec. 6, 2021, when federal agents confronted the woman, she immediately expressed remorse, the memo says.
“I know I did wrong. … I know I am guilty,” she told agents, according to the memo.
Following her father’s death, she was responsible for caring for the rest of her family and making arrangements for his passing, a sentencing memo submitted by her attorney on her behalf shows. She used her father’s benefits to “make ends meet over the years,” her attorney wrote.
Although the woman was not eligible for a sentence of probation, based on U.S. sentencing guidelines, prosecutors argued five years of unsupervised probation and restitution was sufficient due to her life circumstances, the government’s memo shows.
“Her willingness to immediately admit to wrongdoing once confronted is significant,” prosecutors wrote.
In addition, they noted her lack of a criminal history, age, that she has seven children and suffers from several health issues, including long COVID, weighed “in favor of probation” instead of a custodial sentence, according to the sentencing memo.
The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General.
Although prosecutors have publicly identified the woman, McClatchy News isn’t naming her because she’s not accused of a crime causing direct physical harm to another person.
Crownpoint is about 130 miles northwest of Albuquerque.
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