Just like the meaning of her last name implies, Mary Elizabeth Workman was no stranger to work. But she was no stranger to fraud either. Worman received monthly disability payments from the Social Security Administration for over fifteen years. However, while collecting these benefits, Workman was running a successful business. A fact she deliberately hid from the SSA to keep receiving payments she wasn’t entitled to.
In 2008, Workman was granted Social Security benefits after claiming she had not been able to work due to medical conditions. However, in 2022, investigators found that while receiving benefits, Workman was running her own tax refund preparation business, Custom Tax Services out of her home in Raleigh. Not only did investigators find that her website claimed to have been in business for over twenty-six years, it also contained customer testimonials of her work during that time while she received benefits.
Even more evidence of her fraudulent ways was found in her application for unemployment insurance that she filed in March of 2020. In that application, Workman stated that she had been self-employed as an accounting bookkeeper for “the past twenty-six years” and that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she had been unable to work. Medical disability or pandemic? Can’t have both as the reason to steal government money.
Workman was limited to earning no more than $1,350 a month to keep her disability status and payments. But investigators found she made $16,610 in March of 2020, $10,610 in April 2020 and $12,495.70 in May 2020. Workman received over $200,000 in Social Security benefits that she was not entitled to.
On December 10, 2024, Workman was sentenced to fifteen months in prison for defrauding the Social Security Administration.
Great job by the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General in the investigation of this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Bookkeeper gets 15 months for Social Security fraud” published by The Daily Records on December 13, 2024
A Raleigh woman, formerly of Johnston County, was sentenced to one year and three months in federal prison for defrauding the Social Security Administration. Mary Elizabeth Workman, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government funds in federal court on June 26. She was sentenced Dec. 5.
According to federal court records online, Workman was granted Social Security benefits after claiming she had not been able to work since 2008. However, investigators found that she started her own tax preparation business, Custom Tax Services, operating out of her home in Raleigh in 2018.
