Cynthia Delores Holland, a 62-year-old resident of Aiken, South Carolina, has been sentenced to one year and one month in federal prison for theft of government funds from the Social Security Administration (SSA).
Evidence presented at trial showed that Holland continued to receive her deceased mother’s retirement benefits after her mother passed away in 2013. The SSA mistakenly kept depositing these benefits into a joint account shared by Holland and her mother. Instead of reporting the error, Holland transferred the funds into her personal account and used them for her own expenses. This conduct lasted until December 2022 when the SSA discovered the mistake and stopped the payments. Over nearly ten years, Holland collected more than $168,000.
The error was first identified in 2021 as part of the SSA's Death Match Project. In this project, the agency asked the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control for death records dating back to 2005 and compared those records with their list of beneficiaries. The appearance of Holland’s mother on this list triggered an investigation.
United States District Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. sentenced Holland to 13 months in prison followed by three years of court-ordered supervision. Federal law does not allow parole. The court also ordered Holland to repay any remaining amount not yet recovered by the Social Security Administration.
The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Winston Holliday, Scott Matthews, and Kerry McTigue prosecuted the case.
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