{"id":12906,"date":"2015-06-17T14:59:44","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T21:59:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=12906"},"modified":"2015-06-17T14:59:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T21:59:44","slug":"nine-montanans-guilty-of-stealing-nearly-half-million-dollars-earmarked-for-needy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=12906","title":{"rendered":"Nine Montanans Guilty of Stealing Nearly Half-Million Dollars Earmarked for Needy"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTANA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\"FBI<\/a>
FBI Photo Image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nine Montanans were convicted for stealing nearly half-a-million-dollars that was earmarked for needy people.<\/p>\n

The defendants gave false information or made misrepresentations on their paperwork for Supplemental Security Income or SSI.<\/p>\n

In total, the operation dubbed “Operation Save our Social Security” uncovered approximately $410,176\u00a0in social security fraud, $107,288 in Medicaid fraud and $34,500 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) fraud.<\/p>\n

All the defendants have been ordered by the federal court to pay back the money they stole, including the final defendant, Caroline Bighair, who was sentenced today to pay back $23,424 and to three years of supervised release.<\/p>\n

A tenth social security recipient was ordered to do the same under an agreement with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office due to personal circumstances, authorities said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSupplemental Security Income relies on the truthfulness and personal integrity of the people who apply for and receive it,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Michael Cotter<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cWhen people get greedy and lie to the government in order to get more money than they deserve, the people who actually qualify and need the money to survive are harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

SSI is the money drawn from general federal tax revenue and is designed to help aged, blind and disabled citizens who have little or no income.\u00a0 SSI provides cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing and shelter.<\/p>\n

Applications for Supplemental Security Income also impact eligibility for other federal monies, including Medicaid, survivor benefits and SNAP, also known as food stamps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese individuals repeatedly lied, cheated and stole from some of the most vulnerable residence of Montana,\u201d said Special Agent in Charge Wilbert Craig of the Denver Field Division for the Social Security Administration\u2019s Office of Inspector General<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cIn many instances, the victims were their own family and left to fend for themselves.\u00a0 These are real crimes, impacting real lives and extending beyond the victims to every U.S. taxpayer.\u00a0 I am proud of our combined efforts with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.\u201d<\/p>\n

SSI is the money drawn from general federal tax revenue and is designed to help aged, blind and disabled citizens who have little or no income.\u00a0 SSI provides cash to meet basic needs for food, clothing and shelter.\u00a0 Applications for Supplemental Security Income also impact eligibility for other federal monies, including Medicaid, survivor benefits and SNAP, also known as food stamps.<\/p>\n

The following defendants were charged and convicted as part of the operation:\u00a0Caroline Big Hair, Vicky Blair, Tonya Brackett, Meghan Gontz, Nelson Grandchamp, Earline Pritchard, Melvin Smith, Georgia Wetsit, Patricia Lightfield<\/strong> and Bonnie Wingo.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Examples of fraud from these cases include misrepresentations about whether a defendant was married, the composition of a defendant\u2019s household and how much money the defendant was making as income, officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those misrepresentations directly impacted whether or not the defendants were eligible to receive federal money, which in some cases, was in excess of $1,000 per month from the federal government, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTANA Nine Montanans were convicted for stealing nearly half-a-million-dollars that was earmarked for needy people. The defendants gave false information or made misrepresentations on their paperwork for Supplemental Security Income or SSI….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[210],"class_list":["post-12906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-social-security"],"yoast_head":"\nMontanans Convicted of Stealing Nearly Half-a-Million Dollars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nine Montanans convicted of stealing nearly half-a-million dollars that was earmarked for needy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=12906\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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