There have been quite a few cases this year of people accused or convicted of stealing Social Security benefits meant for others, including relatives. There were two such cases in the news this week, both involving people taking benefits meant for their parents.

In one case, a Maryland man has been sentenced to a year in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after he was convicted of stealing money meant for his mother, according to Baltimore TV station WJZ.

The man took more than $224,000 monthly benefits over nearly a two-decade period, between 1997 and 2018, according to WJZ. The payments began the month the mother died, and he did not inform the Social Security Administration. The sentence followed a plea agreement. 

In this case, in addition to the long period of the crime, the deception involved more trouble and extra steps than most.  

“As the son and representative payee of his mother, Lester was charged with spending his mother’s Social Security retirement benefits on her behalf and was required to file annual reports that documented transactions using those funds,” the Justice Department press release said. “Each year, Lester provided falsified reports that detailed how he spent the funds on food, housing, and personal items. In 2012, Lester elected to receive payments by direct deposit to an account in his name. Records from the account show that Lester would withdraw virtually all of the funds by ATM at the beginning of each month.” 

In another case on the opposite coast, a fifty-eight-year-old woman in California pled guilty to federal charges that she stole Social Security payments meant for her deceased father.

It was a similar case in Maryland, according to the Fresno Bee. The woman in question did not inform the Social Security Administration of her father’s death and continued to collect the benefits via direct deposit. This theft was of $87,000 in benefits and took place over a six-year period, between 2012 and 2018, according to the report.

The woman will be sentenced in February and faces a maximum of ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She has also agreed to make restitution.

The woman “transferred the payments into her own bank accounts and then used the money for personal expenditures, including credit card bills and house repairs,” according to the Justice Department.

These cases follow a high-profile case earlier this fall, in which a woman in Las Vegas was accused of dismembering her husband’s body following his death, and collecting his Social Security benefits for four years, to the tune of $120,000. That woman was caught after an anonymous tip.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for the National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver. 

Image: Reuters