DOJ Charges 17 People in $1.3 Million Social Security Fraud Crackdown

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged 17 individuals in connection with the alleged theft of more than $1.34 million in Social Security benefits.

The charges followed criminal enforcement actions conducted by the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division between Aug. 21 and Sept. 18, according to a Sept. 29 DOJ news release.

One of the defendants, Eva Bratcher of Chicago, allegedly hid her mother’s body in a freezer inside her garage for two years. Prosecutors alleged that Bratcher stole $21,402 in Social Security and food program benefits by using her mother’s identity after her death.

In another case, the DOJ charged David Darling with stealing $109,746 in Social Security benefits paid into his deceased brother’s bank account. The department said the Social Security Administration was unaware of his brother’s death and continued making payments into the account, which was under Darling’s control.

Another defendant, Laura Whisenant, was accused of misusing $121,980 in Social Security benefits while serving as the representative payee for her elderly uncle, who had a mental disability. The DOJ said Whisenant allegedly took the payments while her uncle lived in a house without running water and electricity for seven years.

It was unclear whether the three defendants had been assigned a legal representative at the time of publication.

“Every dollar stolen is a dollar taken from a retiree’s medicine, meals, or housing. These cases represent just a fraction of the fraud we are aggressively pursuing every day,” Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division said in a statement.

The DOJ announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7 to combat fraud in federal benefit programs, aligning with President Donald Trump’s March 16 executive order.

In his order, Trump said that some states had failed to implement basic measures to prevent fraud in federal benefit programs, such as providing the federal government with enrollee information for eligibility verification.

Citing an April 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office, the DOJ stated on Sept. 1 that federal government fraud losses are estimated to range from 3 percent to 7 percent of federal spending, or $233 billion to $521 billion annually.

Jeremy Lott contributed to this report.