Woman stole half a million dollars by pretending to be her dead mother-in-law: sentenced in New York – El Diario NY

Sandra Smith, a resident of the state of Georgia, collected almost $500,000 in pension and Social Security payments from her deceased mother-in-law over a period of 15 years, the New York state comptroller reported.

The woman served as mother-in-law’s caregiver Minnie Smith and continued collecting his payments after his death at age 63 in 2006said Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

In July the 50-year-old woman pleaded guilty to federal charges, was sentenced to more than a year in federal prison and must make full restitutionDiNapoli announced it’s a statement recent.

Smith “callously exploited the death of his mother-in-law in an effort to defraud New York’s retirement system and the Social Security Administration” (SSA), DiNapoli said.

Smith’s mother-in-law was a long-time resident of Brooklyn (NYC) and worked for the state Insurance Fund from 1985 until his retirement in 2005. He then moved to Georgia to be near his family, he said. New York Post.

Minnie Smith’s family did not notify the New York State Retirement System or SSA of her death. Instead, the retirement system received a change of address form with the deceased woman’s purported signature, DiNapoli said. Daughter-in-law He had access to his mother-in-law’s bank account after her death.

Therefore he was able to transfer pension and social security funds to his own bank accounts. A total of $264,699 in pension payments and $194,351 in Social Security were deposited into Minnie Smith’s bank account between 2006 and 2021.

“After conducting a forensic analysis, Ms. Smith was interviewed by federal investigators and confessed to the crime,” a spokesman for the New York comptroller’s office said.

In a similar case, this month a woman was arrested in The Bronx (NYC) for allegedly robbing the home of a dead man who had the same name as his also-deceased father, then selling the property and squandering the funds on jewelry and a luxury car.

In September, a woman was arrested on suspicion of using credit cards from the company she worked for to pay herself more than $350,000 over the course of two years in Long Island (NY).

In April Nicole D. Federici, a resident of The Bronx (NYC), was arrested at a bank in Connecticut on suspicion of trying to obtain a check worth $38,510.62 and another $5,000 in cash. using a stolen credit card.