Sister steals over $64,000 in disability benefits from dead brother for years, feds say
A woman accused of stealing thousands in disability benefits meant for her brother who died is going to prison — and owes over $65,000 in restitution, federal prosecutors said.
The 62-year-old, of Oakdale, Louisiana, began emptying her brother’s bank account of money deposited by the Social Security Administration a month after his death in October 2013, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana.
She continued stealing the monthly Supplemental Security Income Disability benefits totaling $64,059 until November 2020, court documents show.
When the SSA learned her brother had died, it tried recovering $64,059 wrongly issued to him but couldn’t because the woman spent the money at local businesses in Alexandria, according to her plea agreement.
A judge has sentenced the woman to eight months in prison after she pleaded guilty to three counts of theft of government money in February, the attorney’s office announced in a July 6 news release.
McClatchy News contacted a federal public defender representing the woman for comment July 7 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
In addition to the disability benefits, the woman also stole and spent a U.S. Treasury COVID-19 Economic Impact Relief payment of $1,200 deposited into her brother’s bank account, prosecutors said.
She was sentenced to three years of supervised release after her prison sentence, according to officials.
In the U.S., 67 million people are estimated to receive monthly Social Security benefits in 2023, according to the SSA.
Oakdale is about 185 miles northwest of New Orleans.
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