Posted on 01/09/2008 8:18:43 PM PST by hercuroc
Eighty-three people have been charged in state and federal court with ripping off the U.S. Social Security Administration of $663,000, officials said today.
The prosecution, one of the biggest of its kind in the country, alleges that defendants falsely claimed they didn't receive benefit checks and were issued duplicate checks before cashing both of them, according to officials and court documents.
The cases are similar to a wave of federal prosecutions filed in October 2006 when 19 people were charged with bilking the system for $270,000. All of those defendants have been convicted and some have received prison time, records show.
The current batch of cases grew out of that earlier prosecution, said Bill Cotter, special agent in charge of the Social Security Administration's office of the inspector general in Chicago.
Since that 2006 prosecution, which at the time was one of the biggest nationally, the agency has charged large batches of people around the country, as investigators try to shut down what they call a persistent form of fraud. A 2003 study estimated there could be up to $105 million in double check fraud occurring in Social Security, Cotter said.
"It's the integrity of the system," he said. "If you don't do something about it, people will continue to do it."
Here is how officials say it works: the defendants some of whom are recipients and others who collect checks for others claim that a check was lost in the mail. They go to a Social Security office or call a hotline and ask for a new check to be cashed and then both are deposited.
In the current case, 22 of the most serious cases are charged in federal court and the other 61 are charged in Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine counties.
lol!
B.S. It's about the money. If it were about the integrity of the system, they'd have arrested millions of illegals using fake or stolen SS #'s.
This is truly a shock!!! Why I just can’t believe good Dimocratz in the Cheese Head state would bilk the gummint on social security. They are such gospel loving, honest people.
After all, they wouldn’t ever commit vote fraud by voting 2X, 3X or XX or by slashing tires of Republican campaign vehicles at 4 AM on voting day, right?
s/off
Tip of the iceberg. We need bigger government to fix it all!
Wonder if they caught the illegal immigrant that “borrowed” my Social Security card to go to college.
And in anywhere other than government, a stop check order put on the first check, would eventually result in the original check being refused by the bank, resulting in a chargeback to the person owning the account.
I doubt this would work with my employer.
Did you get a degree out of it?
Wanna bet how many of them have to pay it back?
Since it’s government (taxpayer) money, past history says ZERO!!!!!
I’m trying to get SSDI and it’s been going on since August and I am finding how inept the workers there are.
One of the reasons I moved on to agencies with a more enforcement view of the laws they were charged to administer!
i wish. i had to prove i was me. apparently the other person didn’t need to prove he or she was me.
Soooo, the arrests are public record. Shouldn’t they have posted the names of the people arrested?
These people are truly stupid
If anyone has any doubts on Social Security disability fraud check out the id of pauline0000000 on Youtube. You will see SS Disability fraud first hand. Social Security has been notified several times by more than one ndividual about this yet there never seems to be any type of investigation into this. Go and watch the videos and perhaps someone can explain why this guy even needs a handicap placard for his vehicle. No one else in his family has the need for the placard. You will be amazed at what you see and has been going on. THOSE TAXPAYERS
FED UP WITH SUPPORTING PEOPLE LIKE THIS CALL THE FRAUD HOTLINE AT 1-800-269-0271 FROM 10:00 A.M. TO 4:00 P.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME AND TELL THEM ABOUT THIS LINK SO THEY CAN SEE FOR THEMSELVES WHAT IS GOING ON! IT’S YOUR TAX DOLLARS GOING TO WASTE
If anyone wants to steal money, just start an investment bank, have it fail, then get a ‘bailout’ from the taxpayers.
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