NEWS RELEASE

OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY

WESTERN DISTRICT OF MISSOURI

MATT J. WHITWORTH

Contact Don Ledford, Public Affairs ● (816) 426-4220 ● 400 East Ninth Street, Room 5510 ● Kansas City, MO 64106

www.usdoj.gov/usao/mow/index.html

MARCH 24, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALTON MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SOCIAL SECURITY FRAUD

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – Matt J. Whitworth, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that an Alton, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court today to Social Security fraud.

James Sisco, 48, of Alton, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. England this morning to a federal information that charges him with Social Security fraud.

By pleading guilty today, Sisco admitted that from June 2001 to September 2007 he earned income from a saw mill business, while at the same time receiving $110,102 in disability benefits for which he was not eligible.

Sisco began receiving Title II disability benefits in June 2001, the same month that he began operating a saw mill on his property. Sisco engaged in the business of cutting lumber and providing it to pallet companies. He ordered loads of lumber, which were delivered to his property, and cut the lumber. Sisco then delivered the finished product to various pallet companies throughout Missouri and Arkansas.

In order to conceal his work activity, Sisco directed the buyers to remit payment in the form of checks payable to others. Sisco then fraudulently endorsed the checks by forging those people’s signatures, and cashed the checks at his bank. From 2001 to 2007, Sisco received $856,184 in total gross receipts from the operation of his sawmill, which he did not report to the Social Security Administration or to the Internal Revenue Service as he was required.

Under federal statutes, Sisco is subject to a sentence of up to five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $250,000 and an order of restitution. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Mohlhenrich. It was investigated by the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General.

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