Joseph McLaughlin, Social Security Benefits Fraud, West Virginia 2023

Joseph McLaughlin, 38, of St. Albans, West Virginia, has been sentenced to six months of federal incarceration for the felony offense of fraudulently obtaining Social Security Administration benefits.

McLaughlin will also be required to serve an additional three years on supervised release, and was ordered by the Court to pay restitution to the United States Treasury in the amount of $121,436.

The investigation was conducted by the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Social Security Administration. According to United States Attorney Mike Stuart, McLaughlin continued to receive federal benefits to which he was not entitled for years.

“Social Security fraud is rampant in West Virginia and we are doing everything we can to hold fraudsters accountable,” said United States Attorney Mike Stuart. McLaughlin applied for Title II Social Security Administration (SSA) benefits in 2007 for the care of a child as the child’s representative payee.

These Social Security representative payee benefits are based on income and living arrangements and create a duty on the recipient to report a change in living arrangements. McLaughlin indicated that the child resided with him and he used the SSA benefits for the child’s care. However, the child had moved out in 2011 and was no longer residing with him.

From April 2011 through February 2017, McLaughlin received at least $121,436 in Social Security benefits in excess of the amount he was due and that were not spent on the child. On August 15, 2017, McLaughlin gave a detailed statement to federal investigators with the OIG, admitting that he was receiving money that he was not entitled to receive and that the child had moved out of the home in 2011.

Assistant United States Attorney Erik S. Goes handled the prosecution, and United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. presided over the hearing. McLaughlin’s sentence includes six months of home confinement at a drug rehabilitation shelter in Beckley, West Virginia, in addition to the federal incarceration and supervised release.

The case highlights the ongoing efforts of law enforcement to combat Social Security fraud in West Virginia. As United States Attorney Mike Stuart noted, holding fraudsters accountable is crucial to maintaining the integrity of the Social Security system.

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