A Georgia woman won’t go to prison after she was convicted of stealing more than $130,000 in Social Security benefits meant for her father, who died in 2006, federal prosecutors said.
Her father’s retirement benefits went to her debit card, before and after his death, after she was made his payee by the Social Security Administration in 2004, according to court documents.
For nearly two decades, the Atlanta woman maintained her father was alive on yearly payee forms submitted to the SSA to continue collecting his benefits, her indictment says.
She wrote the money was spent on “his care and support” on every form, according to the indictment.
When investigators with the SSA interviewed her in March 2023, “she admitted that her father had died and that she had submitted false statements,” according to prosecutors.
However, prosecutors said she wasn’t entirely truthful, as she lied about a Social Security employee encouraging her to lie “so that she could continue to receive the benefits which she falsely claimed were pension benefits from a private pension fund.”
The woman, 66, was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $130,182.90 after she pleaded guilty to theft of government funds in March, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said in a July 12 news release.
The first 90 days of her probation will be served on home confinement, prosecutors said.
Her defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on July 15.
Another Atlanta woman sentenced
In a separate case, a woman similarly accused of stealing her brother’s Social Security benefits, following his death in September 2009, was convicted of theft of government funds in March, prosecutors said.
The 55-year-old Atlanta resident lied about her brother being alive and pocketed his disability benefits that became retirement benefits by 2015, according to her indictment.
Each year the theft continued, the woman wrote on annual reporting statements that she spent thousands on his “care and support” and saved a couple hundred dollars for him, the indictment shows.
She stole nearly $140,000 benefits meant for her brother in total, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Her defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment on July 15.
The woman has been sentenced to four years of probation and was ordered to pay $139,656.00, prosecutors said.
She will serve the first six months of her probation on home confinement, according to prosecutors.
U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said in a statement that both Atlanta women “chose to assume the responsibility of acting on behalf of loved ones as the recipients of their relative’s Social Security benefits.”
“Then they concealed the deaths of their relatives and knowingly and unlawfully continued to receive these government funds to which they were not entitled,” he said.
Suspected Social Security fraud can be reported online to the SSA Office of the Inspector General or the OIG’s fraud hotline by calling 1-800-269-0271.
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