KENTUCKY
A federal grand jury indicted a retired administrative law judge, a lawyer and a psychologist Tuesday for submitting phony medical records to the Social Security Administration involving more than 2,000 cases in Kentucky and elsewhere, according to officials.
The scam resulted in $600 million loss to the Social Security Administration.
David Black Daugherty, 81, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Eric Christopher Conn, 55, and Alfred Bradley Adkins, 44, both of Pikeville, Kentucky, were charged in an 18-count indictment returned on April 1, 2016, in federal court.
Conn, Adkins and Daugherty allegedly received more than $5 million during the nearly eight-year scheme, according to officials.
The indictment was unsealed upon Conn’s arrest and initial court appearance Tuesday. Conn was detained pending his detention hearing Thursday.
The indictment alleges that from October 2004 to Feb. 13, 2012, Conn, Daugherty and Adkins were engaged in a conspiracy to scam the Social Security Administration with false medical documentation in order to have Social Security pay claimants’ retroactive disability benefits, continue to pay claimants’ disability benefits in the future, award Medicare and Medicaid benefits to claimants and pay Conn’s attorney fees.
According to the indictment, these are the allegations:
- Conn is an attorney whose firm in Floyd County has focused for the past 20 years primarily on representing individuals seeking Social Security disability benefits.
- Adkins is a clinical psychologist who performed medical evaluations for Conn from 2004 through 2011
- Daugherty is a former Social Security Administration law judge who began working with the Social Security in 1990 and was assigned to the Office of Disability and Adjudication Review hearing office in Huntington, West Virginia, which maintained a satellite office in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and handled the claims of Kentucky claimants who requested hearings.
- Daugherty, who retired in July 2011, was responsible for deciding whether claimants were disabled and entitled to benefits.
As part of the scheme, Conn allegedly filed disability applications with the Prestonsburg Field Office, irrespective of the claimants’ residence in an effort to ultimately bring the cases before the Huntington Hearing Office, where Daugherty either self-assigned or directed others to assign those cases to himself.
Daugherty allegedly solicited Conn to submit falsified medical evidence so that Daugherty could issue fully favorable decisions.
Adkins and others performed pretextual physical and mental evaluations on claimants, the indictment alleges. They routinely prepared and signed evaluation reports indicating that claimants had limitations considered disabling by Social Security, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, once the law enforcement investigation began, Conn allegedly threatened to retaliate against another person’s livelihood when that person provided truthful information to a law enforcement officer about the scheme.
Conn also allegedly destroyed and directed others to destroy evidence, including federal reports, a computer tower and other electronic hardware and media located at his law firm.
The indictment charges all three defendants with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
In addition, Conn is charged with three counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, two counts of obstruction, two counts of false statements, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, four counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to structure payments.
Adkins is charged with one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and one count of false statements.
Daugherty also is charged with two counts of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
“As I stated just a few days ago when announcing charges against Kentucky Deputy Attorney General Timothy Longmeyer, the Louisville FBI is committed to cleaning up Kentucky,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Louisville Office Howard S. Marshall. “The allegations against these defendants is yet another example of Kentucky’s historical willingness to accept corruption as the status quo. Although cleaning up Kentucky is a long and difficult process, today’s announcement is another step toward ending public corruption and taking back the commonwealth from those who corrupt it.”
“IRS-Criminal Investigation is committed to unraveling complex fraud and money laundering schemes,” said IRS Special Agent in Charge of Criminal Investigations Tracy D. Montaño in Nashville. “The allegations in this case describe a gross abuse of a system that was established to provide assistance to those truly in need. The defendants are alleged to have conspired to use their positions, to corrupt the system for their own personal gain, at the expense of the American taxpayers who fund the Social Security system. We are proud to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute individuals who attempt to enrich themselves by fraudulent means.”
The indictment alleges that from October 2004 to Feb. 13, 2012, Conn, Daugherty and Adkins conspired to defraud the government by, among other things, submitting false and fraudulent medical documentation to the SSA in order to have the SSA pay claimants’ retroactive disability benefits, continue to pay claimants’ disability benefits in the future, award Medicare and Medicaid benefits to claimants and pay Conn’s attorney fees.
According to the indictment, the intended that the SSA disburse more than $600 million in disability benefits in more than 2,000 cases to claimants in Kentucky and elsewhere, irrespective of the claimants’ actual entitlement to benefits. Conn, Adkins and Daugherty allegedly received more than $5 million during the nearly eight-year scheme.
According to the indictment, these are the allegations:
Conn is an attorney whose firm in Floyd County has focused for the past 20 years primarily on representing individuals seeking Social Security disability benefits.
Adkins is a clinical psychologist who performed medical evaluations for Conn from 2004 through 2011
Daugherty is a former SSA administrative law judge who began working with the SSA in 1990 and was assigned to the Office of Disability and Adjudication Review hearing office in Huntington, West Virginia, which maintained a satellite office in Prestonsburg, Kentucky, and handled the claims of Kentucky claimants who requested hearings.
Daugherty, who retired in July 2011, was responsible for deciding whether claimants were disabled and entitled to benefits.
As part of the scheme, Conn allegedly filed disability applications with the Prestonsburg Field Office, irrespective of the claimants’ residence in an effort to ultimately bring the cases before the Huntington Hearing Office, where Daugherty either self-assigned or directed others to assign those cases to himself.
Daugherty allegedly solicited Conn to submit falsified medical evidence so that Daugherty could issue fully favorable decisions. Adkins and others performed pretextual physical and mental evaluations on claimants, the indictment alleges.
They routinely prepared and signed evaluation reports indicating that claimants had limitations considered disabling by the SSA, irrespective of claimants’ actual physical or mental conditions, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, once the law enforcement investigation began, Conn allegedly threatened to retaliate against another person’s livelihood when that person provided truthful information to a law enforcement officer about the scheme. Conn also allegedly destroyed and directed others to destroy evidence, including federal reports, a computer tower and other electronic hardware and media located at his law firm.
Defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.