Woman spent 25 years stealing $1 million meant for dead aunt, feds say. She’s indicted

A 77-year-old New Jersey woman accused of stealing more than $1 million in benefits from her dead aunt’s bank account over 25 years has been indicted in federal court, prosecutors said.

After the death of her aunt in 1998, the woman drained her bank account of about $1.01 million in retirement and survivor benefits paid by the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

On May 2, the woman, of South Orange, was indicted on one count of wire fraud, the attorney’s office announced in a news release.

A federal defender appointed to represent the woman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on May 3.

In October 2022, an SSA employee called a number listed for the woman’s aunt, who “would have been over 100 years old,” to see whether she was alive, according to a criminal complaint, McClatchy News previously reported.

The woman is accused of answering the phone, posing as her aunt, and providing the SSA employee with her aunt’s “approximate birthdate,” the complaint says.

In 2023, the SSA and OPM learned of the theft and stopped depositing money in the woman’s aunt’s bank account, according to prosecutors.

She’s accused of stealing from the account from Jan. 16, 1998 to June 2, 2023, the indictment shows.

The woman embezzled the federal benefits by using a debit card, making cash withdrawals and forging checks, prosecutors said.

The checks were written out to “a company (she) controlled,” according to prosecutors.

If convicted on the charge of wire fraud, the woman could face up to 20 years in prison, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

She could also face a fine of up to $250,000 “or twice the pecuniary gain or loss caused by the offense, whichever is greatest,” prosecutors said.

South Orange is about a 20-mile drive west of New York City.

This story was originally published May 3, 2024 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Woman spent 25 years stealing $1 million meant for dead aunt, feds say. She’s indicted."

Julia Marnin

McClatchy DC

Julia Marnin covers courts for McClatchy News, writing about criminal and civil affairs, including cases involving policing, corrections, civil liberties, fraud, and abuses of power. As a reporter on McClatchy’s National Real-Time Team, she’s also covered the COVID-19 pandemic and a variety of other topics since joining in 2021, following a fellowship with Newsweek. Born in Biloxi, Mississippi, she was raised in South Jersey and is now based in New York State.