No Happy Ending

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Thief holding a social security card.

Charles Edward “Ed” Severt Jr., 52, of Xenia, Ohio, has an interesting story but no happy ending. While he survived being shot by his wife, he used that incident to pursue $370,000 in Social Security disability benefits he didn’t deserve.

I can imagine that being shot (and by a spouse, no less) can be unnerving. Severt’s wife Leah was encouraged by her boyfriend at the time, Mark Roysdon, a former Dayton and Miamisburg police officer, to shoot her husband. (Those two don’t have a happy ending, either.) Roysdon is now serving 18 months in prison for providing the encouragement that led to Leah shooting her husband. She got four years behind bars for pulling the trigger.

Severt applied for Social Security disability benefits after the shooting occurred in 2010. He claimed that he had not worked since the shooting. But apparently, court documents show that Severt had worked since 2014 trimming trees. But this was not the only thing that is concerning about Severt.

The former investment advisor stated under oath that his license was suspended because he did not report income from flipping houses. (It was a little bit more than suspended.) Severt was actually banned for life by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for stealing $20,000 from a church in Xenia. (What kind of person steals from a church? A fraudster, that’s who.)

Severt was sentenced to two years in federal prison after he was convicted of stealing $370,000 in Social Security disability benefits. What would make for an interesting ending to this story? (This tragic story might have an interesting plot twist if he was sent to the same prison as his ex-wife or her ex-boyfriend.)

Today’s Fraud of the Day comes from an article, “Xenia man sentenced to prison for stealing more than $370K in disability benefits,” published by Dayton Daily News on February 23, 2022.

A former investment adviser was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing more than $370,000 in Social Security disability benefits and for making false statements about the theft of $20,000 from a Xenia church, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker of the Southern District of Ohio announcd Wednesday.

Charles Edward “Ed” Severt Jr., 52, was indicted and arrested in March 2021.

 

 

 

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Larry Benson, Senior Director of Strategic Alliances, LexisNexis Risk Solutions - Government

Larry Benson is responsible for developing strategic partnerships and solutions for the government vertical. His expertise focuses on how government programs are defrauded by criminal groups, and the approaches necessary to prevent them from succeeding.

Mr. Benson has 30 years of experience in sales and business development. Before joining LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, he spent 12 years founding and managing two software technology startups. During the 1990s he spent 10 years as a Regional Director helping to grow a New England-based technology company from 300 employees to 7,000. He started his career with Martin Marietta Aerospace working on laser guided weapons and day/night vision systems.

A sought-after speaker and accomplished writer, Mr. Benson is the principal author of “Fraud of the Day,” a website dedicated to educating government officials about how criminals are defrauding government programs. He has co-authored WTF? Where’s the Fraud? How to Unmask and Stop Identity Fraud’s Drain on Our Government, and Data Personified, How Fraud is Changing the Meaning of Identity.

Benson holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Albright College, and earned two graduate degrees – a Master of Business Administration from Florida Institute of Technology, and a Master of Science in Engineering from Lehigh University.