.jpg "The boyfriend of a missing mother stole her disabled son's Social Security Administration benefits after she disappeared, officials said.")
The boyfriend of a missing mother stole her disabled son’s Social Security Administration benefits after she disappeared, officials said.
Vladimir Solomany via Unsplash
Nearly a week after a mother went missing, her boyfriend changed the PIN to her debit card and started stealing thousands in benefits meant for her disabled son, federal prosecutors said.
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The woman, who lived with her boyfriend in Newark, New Jersey, has been missing since Dec. 24, 2017 , according to officials. She was identified only as “V.W.” in court documents.
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Now the 37-year-old man is charged with two counts of wire fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft in connection to stealing his girlfriend’s son’s monthly benefits for years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced in a March 3 news release.
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He was arrested on March 3, court records show.
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McClatchy News contacted the man’s attorney for comment on March 6 and didn’t receive a response.
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The money the man is accused of stealing came from the Social Security Administration’s Supplemental Security Income program, which provides monthly payments to adults and children who are blind or have another disability.
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The scheme to steal benefits
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The case dates back to when the Social Security Administration determined the woman’s young son was eligible for SSI benefits, according to an indictment. Anyone who receives these benefits is given a prepaid debit card that the SSI program funds and refills with payments each month, the indictment notes.
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Because the woman’s son was under 18, the Social Security Administration gave her a debit card in her name to receive and access her son’s SSI payments in May 2017, the indictment says.
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She would later vanish in late December of that year, according to officials.
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Six days after her disappearance, her boyfriend took over that debit card, changed her PIN and started withdrawing her son’s SSI payments, according to the indictment.
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In March 2018, the man requested a replacement debit card by calling customer service and posed as his girlfriend over the phone, the indictment says. He did so by identifying himself as her and gave her phone number, address, date of birth and Social Security number, according to officials.
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About a month later, he impersonated his girlfriend again and requested another replacement debit card, the indictment says.
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He and “others acting at (his) direction” withdrew SSI payments that were supposed to support his girlfriend’s son, according to the indictment.
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In total, $19,797 in SSI payments issued to the missing woman’s debit card were stolen, the indictment says.
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Now he’s facing up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and up to two years in prison for each count of aggravated identity theft, prosecutors said.
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A spokesman for the attorney’s office was unable to confirm the missing woman’s identity.
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