Back in 1993, Walter’s brother Edward needed to hide. So, Walter, being the good brother, invented a fake identity. And Edward, to evade an arrest warrant, began living in Las Vegas under the false identity of “Steven Connie.” For 16 years, he fraudulently collected insurance and income through Social Security until he was arrested in 2009. After admitting in court that “Steven Connie” was a fake identity, he began an 11-year prison sentence for Social Security fraud. It should be the end of the story, but it’s not. Because the Social Security Administration (SSA) never got notified that “Steven Connie” was fake and continued to make payments to Edward’s bank account. However, that money did not sit collecting interest!
While Edward was incarcerated serving his time, his brother, Walter Kruljac, assumed the role of collecting the fraudulent Social Security benefits. From 2013 to 2024, Walter claimed all of the money that his brother was still illegally collecting from the SSA. He supposedly gave the monies to either his brother in prison or to his mother, out of the goodness of his heart. But it doesn’t make him any less of a fraudster. After all, he was the one who created the fake identity in the first time.
On April 11, 2025, Walter was sentenced to five years of supervised probation.
Kruljac was also ordered to pay $54,075.80 in restitution to the United States SSA. If he is unable to pay the assigned restitution by the end of his probation, he may have his probation extended.
Shout out to the Department of Social Security Administration in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Brothers collected over $50,000 from social security using fake identity” published by Downtown Devil News on April 11, 2025.
A 73-year-old man in Phoenix was sentenced to five years of supervised probation for social security fraud dating back to 2010 on March 25. Walter Kruljac pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal, admitting he collected social security under a false identity given to him by his brother in prison.
In 1993, Walter Kruljac’s brother and codefendant in the case, Edward Kruljac, began living under the false identity of “Steven Connie,” to evade an arrest warrant charging him with child molestation. Edward Kruljac fled Arizona to Las Vegas and began using the false identity to illegally receive insurance and income through social security.
