On December 1, 2022, Reginald Bagley, of Dellwood, Missouri, admitted in court to stealing his dead mother’s Social Security payments over a twenty-six year period accumulating nearly $197,329 in the process.
Our fraudster actually claims he didn’t mean to steal his mothers Social Security benefits. But things happen…right? And for Mr. Bagley he apparently didn’t know what to do when the benefit money that kept getting deposited got used up. Then more money came and that got used up. A quarter of a century later and almost $200,000 spent, Mr. Bagley says he was over his head. But Mr. Bagley knew what to do once he received a letter of inquiry from the SSA requesting more information. He immediately closed the bank account and got a cashier’s check for the rest of the balance.
The case against Mr. Bagley underscores a longstanding problem in which people collect benefits meant for their dead relatives. The Social Security Administration is responsible for issuing about $1 trillion in benefit payments every year, with an infrastructure so complex and archaic that even the slightest error in the overall payment process can result in millions of dollars in improper payments. SSA’s financial reports from 2021 estimate that the agency had spent about $8.3 billion in improper payments in 2020; with overpayments about $6.8 billion of that.
What is startling in Mr. Bagley’s case was how long it took for SSA to investigate. This scheme could have continued on if it weren’t for the Department of Medicare and Medicaid, who noticed that Mrs. Bagley was not using her Medicare benefits. The Medicare office sent out inquiries to SSA and an investigation was started. About twenty-six years too late.
Kudos to the Department of Medicare and Medicaid for noticing that someone wasn’t using their benefits!
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on an article “Missouri man admits 26-year Social Security fraud” published by the Washington Post on December 2, 2022
An eastern Missouri man has admitted that he stole almost $200,000 by collecting his mother’s Social Security benefits for 26 years after her death.
Reginald Bagley, 62, of Dellwood, pleaded guilty Thursday to a felony charge of stealing money belonging to the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern Missouri said in a news release.
Bagley did not report his mother’s death on March 12, 1994, to the Social Security Administration.
