Asked His Employer to Put His Wages in His Wife’s Name to Avoid Losing Benefits
A man who stole $78,734 in Social Security disability benefits over a nearly four year period was sentenced today to six months in federal prison. Larry Joe Hanson, Sr., age 58, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after an Oct. 30, 2018 guilty plea to theft of government property.
According to a plea agreement and information disclosed at sentencing, Hanson received Social Security disability benefits from April 2013 through March 2017 because he told the Social Security Administration he was not able to work. However, Hanson was working at a company in Cedar Rapids during this time. Hanson lied and said all of the money he was making was from renting his tools to the company and not from working. However, Hanson later asked his employer to put the wages he was making in his wife’s name because, according to Hanson, he wanted to work but could not get paid. Between April 2013 and March 2017, Hanson received $78,734 in disability benefits to which he was not entitled.
Hanson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Hanson was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment. He was ordered to make $78,509.40 in restitution to the Social Security Administration. He must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Hanson was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jacob Schunk and Anthony Morfitt and investigated by the Social Security Administration - Office of the Inspector General. Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 18-cr-73.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
