For the past 25 years, a woman in New Jersey posed as her deceased aunt to continue receiving her pension and the benefits she received for her late husband. Janis Miller has been accused by the prosecution of collecting US$1,011,004.85 in benefits from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), money that was intended for his aunt.
Janis Miller, a 77-year-old woman from South Orange, Essex County, was arrested on December 21 and charged with one count of wire fraud. After appearing before federal judge Jessica S. Allen in federal court in Newark, he was released after paying bail of US$100,000.
Janis's aunt, who worked in the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), was not only entitled to OPM benefits, she also received a widow's pension for her late husband. After her death in 1998, the Social Security office continued to transfer her various benefits to the woman's account, since They did not receive notification of their demotion.
According to the authorities, Janis Miller withdrew cash and electronically from her aunt's account; Just using his aunt's debit card, he withdrew nearly US$70,000; and, he forged checks worth US$130,000 to his own company, it indicates N.J.. According to documents filed in the case, the woman also posed as her aunt in a phone call from the Social Security Administration.
The woman was discovered after posing as her aunt on a call.
They discover the fraud
Was thanks to a phone call that the Social Security services became aware of the fraud that Janis Miller had been committing for years. In 2022, an employee of the government agency contacted the telephone number they had registered in the name of Miller's aunt, to verify if the woman was alive, since, by then, she would have been over 100 years old.
Janis Miller took the call posing as her aunt, answered the bureaucrat's questions and gave him an approximate date of birth. This raised alarm bells in the office, which launched an investigation that gave rise to the legal case presented by the New Jersey District Attorney's Office, says the Miami Herald.
He could go to prison for 20 years
Although she is free on bail, Janis Miller is also accused of having used her aunt's benefits to purchase food and gasoline. “(She) illegally disbursed virtually all of those embezzled funds.”prosecutors said in the statement.
If the 77-year-old woman is convicted of the wire fraud charge, she could face a sentence of 20 years in prison, and a fine of up to US$250,000 or one equivalent to “double the pecuniary gain or loss caused by the crime, whichever is greater,” the authorities indicated.
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