Dearly departed, we are gathered here today to talk about fraud. Ella Maye Woods mother, Jeannette E. Styles, Ella Maye Woods’ mother, died Jan. 2, 1994. Not sure if there was an obituary posted. Definitely sure the Social Security Administration wasn’t notified. At the time of her death, Styles was receiving monthly Social Security benefits which should have stopped upon her death. But the Social Security Administration did not learn of Styles’ death until about 2022. So Social Security continued to send payments to Styles. And for twenty-eight years, her daughter, Ella Maye Woods fraudulently converted the payments for her own benefit. Everyone has their own grieving process. Even fraudsters.
A funeral director normally reports deaths to Social Security so the agency can determine about closing the account. It is unclear what happened with the reporting of Jeanette Styles. There also may have been some confusion over Styles’ social security number. It happens. Either way, Woods didn’t contact SSA to notify them of the situation. If anything, she schemed to do otherwise.
During an interview with authorities, Woods claimed she reported her mother’s death to an unknown Social Security agent in Vermont. As part of her scheme, Woods twice opened bank accounts in her mother’s name, years after her death, forging her mom’s name. At one-point federal agents asked Woods to surrender the debit card that went to one of her mother’s new bank accounts, but Woods said it was in storage. She was given a card with a number to call officials to surrender the card. And yet, Woods never gave it up. Keeping her mom’s spirit alive to the very end.
On August 22, 204, Woods was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and must make $328,000 in restitution.
Excellent job by the F.B.I. in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on “Former Brattleboro woman sentenced for social security fraud” published by the Brattleboro Reformer on August 22, 2024.
A former Brattleboro woman, who bilked the Social Security Administration out of $328,000 in benefits earmarked for her dead mother over 28 years, has been sentenced in federal court to one year and a day in prison.
Ella Mae Woods, 76, asked that she be allowed to serve the remainder of her sentence at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility in South Burlington. Her lawyer said Woods has adjusted to life at the state prison and is respected by the staff.
Woods will get credit for about 7 1/2 months that she has been detained on the federal charge. She also could see almost two months chopped off for good time because her sentence exceeded 365 days.
