Earlier this week, on Thursday, a lady from upstate New York entered a guilty plea to multiple charges of social security fraud.
The woman was accused of getting thousands of dollars in social security benefits that were supposed to be for her child, but they were taken away from her possession.
Loretta Washington, who is sixty years old and lives in Binghamton, stated that she had applied for and was getting social security payments for her kid who was under the age of fourteen as part of her guilty plea.
According to the Broome County Department of Social Services, the kid, who was four years old at the time, was taken out of Washington’s custody in September of 2018.
This occurred when the minor was discovered walking on a road in the middle of the night.
Washington allegedly did not inform the Social Security Administration of the change in custody of the child, and at one time, she even lied to the agency, claiming that the child was still in her possession. This is according to the officials.
According to the allegations made by the prosecutors, Washington misappropriated more than $25,000 worth of social security funds between October 2018 and November 2021.
A potential penalty of five years in jail, a fine of up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and a term of supervised release of up to three years are all possible outcomes for Washington.
Restitution to the Social Security Administration is another obligation that will be placed on her shoulders. The date of her punishment is set for February 13, 2025, for the city of Syracuse.
