Debit Cards and Secret Codes: How Was the Employee’s Alleged Scheme to Steal Social Security Money?
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Myrna Faria allegedly took advantage of her access to confidential citizen information to keep the scheme under wraps for more than a decade. Fraud That allowed him to steal nearly $2 million in funds Social securityAccording to indictments returned Thursday by a grand jury.
The allegations contained in the document reflect an operation in which various tactics were used to make the money flow invisible to the authorities and regulatory agencies.
Her knowledge of loopholes in the system to facilitate fraud comes from extensive experience as a Social Security Administration employee in San Juan.Where he worked as a “Social Security Specialist” and “Claim Specialist” from 1991 to 2019.
Allegation announced by Federal Prosecutor’s Office for the District of Puerto Rico This Thursday, it highlights that, since at least 2012, women began filing “fraudulent claims in the Social Security system” using “real persons’ personal information to include names, Social Security numbers and/or dates of birth.”
Similarly, the statement said Faria used her confidential identification code as an employee to approve requests for payments of retirement, survivors’ insurance and support benefits.
The offense lay in the fact that there were 13 requests made for people who were “dead or appeared to be dead.”The document highlights.
The investigation revealed that Faria selected these people after recognizing that their accounts were “inactive,” but that none had officially reported them to the agency as dead.
This situation highlights what can happen when Older adults Those who spend the last years of their lives alone or have little contact with family members and/or guardians are not governed by the various procedures related to their death, such as notifying Social Security to withhold payments.
A table in the indictment details that Faria allegedly made eight claims for benefits in the names of victims — identified only by their initials — between March and September 2012. Another four claims were filed between January and November 2013 and one more in 2019; One month before completion of tenure as an employee. The document highlights that, in all these cases, Faria appears as the person who approved the requests.
How did you receive the funding?
“Faria misrepresented retirement insurance benefits, divorced or widowed survivors,” he noted. HECTOR RAMIREZ CARBODeputy Chief of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Puerto Rico, during a press conference.
One way Faria allegedly managed to get the money he approved was through a debit card from “Bank A,” as identified in the indictment.
Faria, according to the document, knew that the banking institution operated under what was known as a “direct express” system., a program offered to recipients of federal assistance to receive payments electronically. The document shows that this service is provided to beneficiaries who do not have bank accounts.
These cards are sent by the bank to the social security beneficiaries Federal Postal Serviceor by a logistics company UPSat addresses registered in the Social Security System.
The charges state that Faria posted “controlled” addresses to receive the cards. A graph in the document shows that some of those addresses include a condominium in San Juan and others in the Carolinas.
Additionally, the investigation revealed that the defendant used personal bank accounts to receive direct deposits as a result of the fraudulent claims, for which she “contacted the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Bank A to update various records of the fraudulent claims.”
“Of the 13 fraudulent claims submitted and approved by Myrna Faria before her retirement, 10 claims were still active” at the time of the indictment, noted Ramirez Carbo, who did not reveal how he ultimately discovered the scheme.
Officials said they calculated that Faria stole at least $1,812,455.10 over a 12-year period.
If convicted, Faria faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the charge of postal fraud using the mail to commit a crime, 10 years for money laundering and five years for improper use of a telephone number. Social security.
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