FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Over $240 million in preventable overpayments identified The Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report titled, Impact of Undetected Marriages on Social Security Administration Payments, found that SSA did not always take the necessary manual actions to properly update the payment records for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri ST. LOUIS – A man from Jefferson County, Missouri on Wednesday admitted helping to defraud an elderly St. Louis woman out of more than $500,000. Austin James, 27, of Hillsboro, St. Louis County, Missouri, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one felony count of identity…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of North Carolina RALEIGH, N.C. – Two Raleigh, North Carolina men, Joseph Kingsley Irona and Mamady Fadima Conde, were sentenced for conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both men previously pled guilty to the charge. Irona was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Conde was sentenced to…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Rhode Island PROVIDENCE, RI – Four Florida residents have been convicted in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island, for their individual roles in a wide-ranging conspiracy to use stolen personal identifying information (PII) of unsuspecting individuals to fraudulently obtain more than $4.8 million by defrauding banks and fraudulently…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey NEWARK, N.J. – Sixteen individuals were charged in connection with a sprawling “grandparent scam” to defraud hundreds of elderly Americans out of millions of dollars, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today. Eleven men from the Dominican Republic are charged in a 19-count indictment with mail…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Indiana INDIANAPOLIS- Christopher Markham, 40, of Westfield, Indiana, has been charged with one count of wire fraud after allegedly defrauding the Social Security Administration (SSA). According to court documents, Markham was employed by the SSA and assigned to an office based in Anderson, Indiana. Between February 13,…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maine BANGOR, Maine: A Troy woman pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bangor to Social Security fraud, health care fraud, and theft of public money. According to court records, from about October 2013 to February 2020, Christie Mitchell, 49, lied to the Social Security Administration (SSA) about her husband’s…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Kentucky FRANKFORT, Ky. – A Mexican National who resides in Danville, Ky., Arturo Hernandez-Pozos, 54, was sentenced on Tuesday, by U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove, to 42 months in prison, for wire fraud, making a false statement in a passport application, and aggravated identity theft.   According…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey CAMDEN, N.J. – Three individuals were indicted for their roles in fraudulently obtaining approximately $5 million of federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) and for laundering the loan proceeds, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today. Eric Rivera, 42, of…

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of North Carolina CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Today, Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced that two defendants convicted for theft of Social Security Administration (SSA) benefits in separate cases have been sentenced in federal court. Henry Lionel Barber, 77, of Charlotte, was…