FOX: After admitting to spending nearly a decade fraudulently cashing her dead mother’s Social Security checks, Pamela Thompson, 63, of Algiers, Louisiana, was sentenced in February to three years probation and restitution of $297,325 for theft of government services.
Death can be lucrative. Similar crimes may not be that difficult for fraudsters because of faulty government tracking of which beneficiaries are still alive. Audits have found federal agencies doling out millions in taxpayer dollars to dead people.
Referring to a case in his state, a lead co-sponsor of a bill to curb fraudulent payments, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the near $300,000, “never should have been sent in the first place.”
“It’s pretty simple: Don’t pay dead people,” Kennedy said in a statement.
Kennedy and Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., introduced the Stopping Improper Payments to Deceased People Act in February. more here
They need an act of Congress to stop paying dead people.
What will they think of next, an act of Congress to stop dead people from voting?
Hey – if they can vote, why shouldn’t they be able to draw a pension?
🙂
(Looks like GMTA.)
Probation for stealing $300,000? That’s insane. No wonder people do it. That deserves some real punishment.
What is it about the Kennedy name and the mention of dead people?
Defrauding a Fraudulent Scheme is Fraud?
What a crock of shit.
So, only the FedGov has the *right* to perpetrate fraud? Not the people for whom the FedGov is (allegedly) employed?
What a crock of shit.
izlamo delenda est …
My sister was a funeral director. The reason dead people continue getting social security checks is a few years ago the government stopped paying funeral directors $50 to report a death. Now the government relies on family members to report the death.
Brilliant way to save money!
How many more straws can this camel hold anyway?
We just need legislation to make it illegal for people to die. Problem solved.
She has to pay restitution of the funds she got illegally? No further fines, court charges?
I bet she pays that back, quickly, now that she’s broke?
Suh-weeeeeet. Probation, and she probably won’t live long enough to pay it back. And about the only thing SS.gov can do is garnishee HER SS check when she turns 66.
@ Page O. Turner, I was executor for my Mom’s estate in 1986, and I wondered who ratted me out to SS about her death; I don’t remember doing that.
My wife’s mom died just before Christmas last year. My wife was very proactive and spent hours on the phone and in person at the local SS office. She also alerted the bank where her mom’s checks were deposited electronically. Even at that, SS managed to send the January direct deposit. However, SS did a reversal to remove the extraneous deposit.
I can see how easy it would be with the electronic deposits to continue the payments for years. Just pull a Norman Bates and the sky’s the limit.
If the 63 year old has health problems, world be cheaper to leave them on medicad
Wasn’t it Katrina where thy found like 25% of the police forces were ghosts getting checks?
Remember – “…THE GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM!”!
Nearly $300,000.00 in under 10 years? WTFO? That is $30,000.00 per year. Who the f#$% gets 30K/year on social security? I am smelling something rotten in dah gumbo, yawl.