Defendant fraudulently obtained over $74,000
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - A Nitro, West Virginia woman entered a guilty plea to the felony offense of fraudulently obtaining Social Security Income benefits, announced United States Attorney Mike Stuart. Teresa Ahrent, 56, faces up to 5 years of incarceration when she is scheduled to be sentenced on June 8, 2020. She will also be required to pay restitution back to the United States Social Security Administration. United States Attorney Mike Stuart praised the work of the United States Social Security Administration-Office of Inspector General (SSA-OIG) and the Social Security Administration (SSA).
“Social security and government benefit fraud is rampant and epidemic. Stealing government benefits is an abhorrent repugnant act," said United States Attorney Mike Stuart. “The bottom line is this- steal social security or any other government benefit and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. If we catch you ripping off the system and the taxpayers, we will hold you accountable. No excuse is acceptable. We are working closely with the Social Security Administration to identify fraudsters and hold them accountable."
Ahrent applied for Title XVI Social Security benefits in January 2005 as a representative payee on behalf of her adult daughter. These Social Security benefits are based on income and living arrangements, and create a duty on the representative payee to report a change in income or living arrangements. In 2005, Ahrent indicated that her daughter resided with her in her (then) home in Hurricane, Putnam County, West Virginia. In 2010, Ahrent’s adult daughter was removed from Ahrent’s home and began to live in Mildred Mitchell-Bateman psychiatric hospital in Huntington, where Ahrent’s daughter resided for nine years. Every year, Ahrent represented to the SSA that her adult daughter resided in Ahrent’s home in Hurricane, when in fact her daughter was living full time at the Bateman hospital and Ahrent had moved to Nitro, Kanawha County, West Virginia. In 2019, the Social Security Administration learned of the fraud and referred the case to the Office of Inspector General. On April 30, 2019, Ahrent gave a detailed statement to federal investigator with the Office of Inspector General and a representative with the Social Security Administration admitting that her daughter did not reside in her home and that she was receiving money that she was not entitled to receive. From June 2010 through May 2019, Ahrent received $74,641 in Social Security benefits in excess of the amount she was due.
United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorneys Erik S. Goes and Julie White handled the prosecution.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
