A former Social Security Administration employee in Houston has been sentenced to 84 months in federal prison for aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to steal government funds. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.
David Lam, age 46, of Pearland, pleaded guilty on June 5, 2025. In addition to his prison term, Lam must serve three years of supervised release and pay $3,346,280 in restitution.
U.S. District Judge Sim Lake handed down the sentence after hearing details about the scheme’s complexity. According to court proceedings, Lam used his position as an operations supervisor and claims specialist at the Social Security Administration office in Houston to access personal information required for his job duties and then misused it for embezzlement and theft.
As part of his plea agreement, Lam admitted that he stole personally identifying information (PII) from recently deceased men and used it to submit fraudulent applications for benefits. He worked with several coconspirators—primarily women with children—to file false survivor benefit claims listing these deceased men as fathers or stepfathers of the children involved. “If true, this would have entitled the women to receive benefits while raising their children as widows. However, the women had no connection to the men listed on the applications, and the deceased men did not father the children.” The fraudulent applications relied on names, dates of birth and death, and Social Security numbers of deceased individuals.
Lam instructed his coconspirators to split stolen funds with him by transferring money through platforms such as Zelle, CashApp or Chime.
He is allowed to remain free on bond until he reports voluntarily to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility at a later date.
The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Gray.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas covers criminal prosecutions and civil cases across a large region including offices in Houston and other cities such as Galveston and Corpus Christi [source]. This office employs more than 200 attorneys serving over nine million residents across 43 counties [source]. It operates under leadership appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice [source], with recent leaders including Alamdar Hamdani who served from 2022 through 2025 [source].
