Virginia Woman Sentenced for Theft of Public Money
June 07, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, June 7, 2021
The Inspector General for the Social Security Administration (SSA), Gail S. Ennis, announced the sentencing of Miriam Greenwald in the Eastern District of Virginia to 12 months and 1 day of incarceration, and 3 years of probation upon release. Greenwald was ordered to pay restitution of $192,948 to the SSA, $86,359 to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and $49,572 to the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA).
In December 2020, Greenwald pleaded guilty to theft of government money. According to court documents, Greenwald’s mother, a Social Security retirement beneficiary, also received benefits as a widow from the OPM and the VA. However, when her mother died in April 2000, Greenwald did not report her death to any of the three agencies. Instead, she transferred funds from her mother’s account into her own for over 17 years.
According to her plea agreement, Greenwald received more than $202,000 in Social Security retirement benefits fraudulently and more than $86,000 in survivor’s pension funds issued by OPM. Similarly, she collected nearly $50,000 in VA payments for 5 years. In total, from April 2000 to November 2018, Greenwald received $338,255 in Federal funds to which she was not entitled.
“Failing to report the death of an individual in order to obtain Social Security funds or other Government benefits is a Federal crime,” said Michael McGill, Special Agent-in-Charge of the SSA Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Philadelphia Field Division. “We will continue to work closely with other law enforcement agencies to identify these cases and hold those accountable who conceal information to defraud SSA.”
The SSA OIG jointly investigated this case with the VA OIG and OPM OIG. Inspector General Ennis thanked the VA OIG and OPM OIG for their support in this investigation and the United States Attorney’s Office for their efforts in prosecuting this case.
Members of the public are encouraged to report suspected Social Security fraud to oig.ssa.gov.