Waiting in Limbo
Photo Credit: kyforky.com
President Trump considers it a priority to address the massive fraud and abuse that has threatened the solvency of Social Security. As we have reported previously, fraudulent claims and incorrect payments have cost the program upwards of $500 billion. This latest scheme by a Connecticut lawyer totaled a half-billion dollars alone.
From the Washington Times:
A ringleader in one of the biggest Social Security disability fraud cases in U.S. history has pleaded guilty to filing more than 1,700 bogus applications, bilking the government out of potentially a half-billion dollars. Eric C. Conn, a prominent lawyer in eastern Kentucky, signed a guilty plea late last month acknowledging the scam, in which he recruited and filed at least 1,748 fraudulent applications, complete with fake IQ tests or medical exams. He had a team of doctors and psychologists sign off on them, then had a Social Security judge rubber-stamp them.
Conn’s elaborate scheme resulted in the federal government being left with a bill for $550 million in lifetime benefits. An estimated $46 million of that had already been paid out as of October 2016. However, many of the recipients claim they were as much “the victim” of Conn’s dubious plans as the government, and they have been…
Left with Nothing
Photo Credit: Washington Times
Many of the applicants whose claims were allegedly falsified say that their cases are in fact real and that they shouldn’t be punished for Conn’s crimes. The Social Security administration has been struggling with how to deal with the cases, but many have had their payments completely halted until their case can be reviewed.
Donna Dye’s family is one of the thousands who have been caught up in the nightmare. Her and her husband, a retired coal miner with a well-documented disability, had their benefits suspended over a year ago. Since then, the couple has had to sell off everything they own just to keep a roof over their head and they may even lose that.
Cases are also pending against Judge David Black Daugherty and Dr. Alfred Bradley Adkins, who were both complicit in the fraud. Sadly, many of their victims with legitimate claims may have to wait years to have their benefits reinstated if it happens at all.
