Daniel Chase Sentenced for Making False Statements to Social Security Administration

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Vermont:

The United States Attorney for the District of Vermont announced that Daniel Chase, 61, of Weathersfield, Vermont was sentenced today in United States District Court in Rutland to one year of probation following his guilty plea to a charge that he made false statements to the Social Security Administration. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford also ordered Chase to pay $2602 in restitution.

In May 2021, a federal grand jury in Burlington returned an indictment charging Chase with three counts of making false statements to the Social Security Administration. In June 2020, Chase’s spouse, who had been receiving Social Security disability payments, died. Upon learning of the spouse’s death, SSA stopped the spouse’s monthly payment, which was about $867. According to the indictment, in an effort to get his spouse’s benefit payments reinstated, Chase repeatedly made false claims to SSA that he was the spouse, that he was alive and that the payments had been wrongly terminated. Chase also submitted forged documents to SSA purportedly as proof that the spouse was alive.

This case was investigated by SSA’s Office of Inspector General and Vermont’s Department of Children and Families.

Chase is represented by Ian Carleton, Esq. and Devin McKnight, Esq. The prosecutor is Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Waples.