Busted! SS disability scammers in NYC to be arrested

[EVT1]

www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/NYC-Police-Officers-Firefighter-Disability-Benefits-Scam-238988101.html

     All allegedly got help gaming the system from the same two lawyers, ages 89 and 83, and two former police officers who in exchange allegedly took cash payments.

     The criminal charges expected to be announced Tuesday will include 106 people in all.

     The more than 100 workers were allegedly taught how to claim they were mentally scarred on SSID applications in order to collect $30,000 to $50,000 in benefits annually.

     Applicants were taught to claim that they could not cope with other people or were so mentally disabled that they could not even prepare a meal on their own. They were allegedly told by the four ringleaders to look disheveled in their interviews and claim they went for days without sleep

     One police officer who claimed he was mentally disabled was allegedly working as a martial arts instructor, officials said. Another who claimed he could not work was allegedly flying helicopters.

     One got benefits because of a fear of crowds and yet was found to be selling cannolis in Little Italy during the San Genarro festival. And another went on to allegedly run a private security company.

     Many also allegedly claimed to be affected by their efforts on 9/11, yet investigators found many were not even near ground zero that day.


My question is what doctors signed off on these mental issues and where are they?  Kudos to the fraud unit. 

[billisonboard]

Jan 7, 2014 7:56:10 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

... Kudos to the fraud unit. 

[grits]

Put them in prison.

It would be easier to catch these people if Congress would tweak the right to privacy laws. Public workers such as mailmen see fraud all the time. Because we encounter it through our performance of our duties, we can't say a word. Also, give the welfare offices, and HUD some security to enforce the laws. We could turn in thousands for what they are doing.

[Tennesseer]

Jan 7, 2014 11:08:17 GMT -5 grits said:

Put them in prison.

It would be easier to catch these people if Congress would tweak the right to privacy laws. Public workers such as mailmen see fraud all the time. Because we encounter it through our performance of our duties, we can't say a word. Also, give the welfare offices, and HUD some security to enforce the laws. We could turn in thousands for what they are doing.

As a mail carrier, you are not allowed to alert your supervisors and the USPS fraud division?

[grits]

We aren't allowed to say a thing unless we see things like child abuse, robberies, spousal abuse. We can tip off police to drug activity but we are limited.

No, we cannot do one thing about that other. In fact, when you go to jail on a felony, all those federal benefits are supposed to stop. The inmates keep right on getting their checks. Not even the sheriff's department is allowed to turn it in to the government. It needs to be changed.

Now, if I am off duty, and see stuff. I know both of the local police chiefs. WOOHOO speed dial.

[EVT1]

Wow- some of these folks were found out because they applied for pistol permits.

Let's pose this to the right wing- if someone is too mentally disabled to work and are therefore 'on welfare' surely we can require them to give up their 2nd amendment rights- we don't need crazy people with guns now do we?  I wonder how that amendment holds up vs. say, the 4th amendment which they don't mind stepping on to drug test the same people.

[bean29]

Jan 8, 2014 10:40:49 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Wow- some of these folks were found out because they applied for pistol permits.

Let's pose this to the right wing- if someone is too mentally disabled to work and are therefore 'on welfare' surely we can require them to give up their 2nd amendment rights- we don't need crazy people with guns now do we?  I wonder how that amendment holds up vs. say, the 4th amendment which they don't mind stepping on to drug test the same people.

EVT, I guess this is not the same as what you are talking about but the really sad think is a Mentally Ill man froze to death this week in Milwaukee.  Over the last several months the wife call 911 something like 60 times but they could not violate his constitutional rights and force him into treatment.  We can not force treatment on someone  who is mentally ill but we can say they can't own guns.  Why can we violate one right but not the other?

[mmhmm]

Jan 8, 2014 12:00:55 GMT -5 bean29 said:

Jan 8, 2014 10:40:49 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Wow- some of these folks were found out because they applied for pistol permits.

Let's pose this to the right wing- if someone is too mentally disabled to work and are therefore 'on welfare' surely we can require them to give up their 2nd amendment rights- we don't need crazy people with guns now do we?  I wonder how that amendment holds up vs. say, the 4th amendment which they don't mind stepping on to drug test the same people.

EVT, I guess this is not the same as what you are talking about but the really sad think is a Mentally Ill man froze to death this week in Milwaukee.  Over the last several months the wife call 911 something like 60 times but they could not violate his constitutional rights and force him into treatment.  We can not force treatment on someone  who is mentally ill but we can say they can't own guns.  Why can we violate one right but not the other?

That's a damned good question, bean!  Sometimes, in the effort to do the correct thing we go too far.  It happens more often than any of us would like.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jan 8, 2014 10:40:49 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Wow- some of these folks were found out because they applied for pistol permits.

Let's pose this to the right wing- if someone is too mentally disabled to work and are therefore 'on welfare' surely we can require them to give up their 2nd amendment rights- we don't need crazy people with guns now do we?  I wonder how that amendment holds up vs. say, the 4th amendment which they don't mind stepping on to drug test the same people.

You've made my point on the mental-illness end-run around the Constitution. I am 100% opposed to restricting gun rights due to "mental illness". They do that, and we'll all be mentally ill. It'll be a defacto gun ban. How many kids are they pumping full of ritalin, anti-depressants and God knows what else these days? How many veterans have "PTSD"?

It's a Constitutional loophole big enough to drive a train through.  Don't like it- never will.

[Tennesseer]

Jan 8, 2014 16:09:28 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Jan 8, 2014 10:40:49 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

Wow- some of these folks were found out because they applied for pistol permits.

Let's pose this to the right wing- if someone is too mentally disabled to work and are therefore 'on welfare' surely we can require them to give up their 2nd amendment rights- we don't need crazy people with guns now do we?  I wonder how that amendment holds up vs. say, the 4th amendment which they don't mind stepping on to drug test the same people.

You've made my point on the mental-illness end-run around the Constitution. I am 100% opposed to restricting gun rights due to "mental illness". They do that, and we'll all be mentally ill. It'll be a defacto gun ban. How many kids are they pumping full of ritalin, anti-depressants and God knows what else these days? How many veterans have "PTSD"?

It's a Constitutional loophole big enough to drive a train through.  Don't like it- never will.

So you are willing to put up with more mass shootings?

[EVT1]

The tree of 2nd amendment liberty must be watered.


What I really wanted to know if someone thinks it is ok to drug test a welfare applicant and step on the 4th amendment, yet thinks that the 2nd would be invoilate.

[grits]

Jan 8, 2014 17:11:41 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

The tree of 2nd amendment liberty must be watered.


What I really wanted to know if someone thinks it is ok to drug test a welfare applicant and step on the 4th amendment, yet thinks that the 2nd would be invoilate.

You should post that on the thread about welfare, and some others. This is just about Social Security fraud. You have   on other threads.  Why try to hijack this one to just keep it going?

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jan 8, 2014 17:11:41 GMT -5 EVT1 said:

The tree of 2nd amendment liberty must be watered.


What I really wanted to know if someone thinks it is ok to drug test a welfare applicant and step on the 4th amendment, yet thinks that the 2nd would be invoilate.

Wasn't in favor of that, either.

[zibazinski]

What's funny is when the same old drivel gets posted over and over again and no one answers or responds, it needs to be brought up again somehow because someone isn't getting any attention. Crying "wolf" anyone?

[Tennesseer]

Poor zibazinski -

[zibazinski]

It should be everyone's public duty to report fraud of any sort and that includes federal employees.

[workpublic]

typical public sector uniformed services union mentality. only idiots do their full 20 years.

been going on for years. i guess 9/11 made it a tad easier.

[grits]

Jan 9, 2014 10:31:29 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

It should be everyone's public duty to report fraud of any sort and that includes federal employees.

Should be, and being allowed too by the government are two different things.

One day, a lady at the food stamp office called. She said X reported that her food stamps had been signed for by a relative that stole her driver's license, and ID. The mail carrier knew it wasn't her, and let them do it anyways. Well, I happened to be the carrier. I told the lady to charge her with food stamp fraud. I didn't trust her, and had required her to show her driver's license, and food stamp card before I would let her sign for them. The lady said the signatures were identical. You know what they did to her? Not a thing. Not a single solitary thing.

Also, after hurricane Rita, FEMA investigators stopped me to ask about an address. I told them the person did not live there, and nobody had lived in the house for X years. I then said let me see the other ones you are investigating. I told them about 10 different cases of fraud. You know what they did to them? Nothing. Not a single thing. 

[zibazinski]

Figures. Job security, having people on the dole.

[grits]

It is more of a lack of funding to provide enforcement of the laws. The local Social Security office has an armed guard to provide protection for the workers, and to keep things in order in the waiting area.

The welfare office does not have law enforcement on staff to arrest people. The same thing with FEMA. Congress passes laws but doesn't put the teeth in the dog so that it can bite. What good does it do to send out a Great Dane if all it can do is gum you?