Janis Miller, Wire Fraud, New Jersey 2023

A New Jersey woman has been indicted for stealing over $1 million in federal retirement benefits intended for her deceased aunt.

Janis Miller, 77, of South Orange, New Jersey, is charged by indictment with one count of wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Miller's aunt died in 1998. Unaware of her death, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) paid approximately $1.01 million in retirement and survivor benefits to the bank account of Miller's deceased aunt.

Miller unlawfully disbursed virtually all of those embezzled funds by debit card, cash withdrawals, and forged checks made out to a company she controlled. In 2022, to continue her unlawful receipt of the benefits, Miller impersonated her deceased aunt and provided her aunt's approximate birthdate to an SSA employee.

The OPM and SSA discovered the fraud and discontinued the benefits in 2023, around 25 years after Miller began stealing those benefits.

The count of wire fraud is punishable by a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of the greatest of either $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss caused by the offense, whichever is greatest.

The investigation was conducted by special agents of the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, Boston-New York Field Division, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley Parker; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Paul Kimball.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/new-jersey-woman-charged-stealing-over-1-million-federal-retirement-benefits-intended