Stephanie Taylor, Theft of Government Property, Georgia 2023

A Brunswick, Georgia woman has been brought to justice for her 18-year-long scheme to receive Social Security benefits intended for her deceased grandmother.

The excess payments were discovered during a routine review by the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, and charged and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S Attorney Steven H. Lee.

According to court documents, Taylor continued to receive her grandmother’s Social Security payments for nearly two decades, accumulating a total of $146,342 in illegally obtained proceeds from October 1998 to October 2016.

Taylor must repay the full amount of $146,342 to account for the proceeds she illegally obtained, and was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completion of her prison term.

The case serves as a reminder of the importance of accountability and the consequences of defrauding the government.

Brunswick, GA – A Brunswick woman who continued to receive her grandmother’s Social Security payments for 18 years after the relative’s death has been sentenced in U.S. District Court.

Stephanie Taylor, 60, of Brunswick, Ga., was sentenced to five months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood after pleading guilty to one count of Theft of Government Property, said David H. Estes, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. Taylor must repay $146,342 to account for proceeds illegally obtained from October 1998 to October 2016, and was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completion of her prison term.

Related Federal Cases