Newport Man Sentenced for Social Security Fraud

COVINGTON, Ky. – A Newport, Kentucky, man was sentenced in federal court on Thursday, by U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning, to five years of probation and 30 days of intermittent confinement for committing Social Security fraud.

According to his guilty plea, from July 2013 through April 2018, Robert Howard, 57, defrauded the Social Security Administration by continuing to fraudulently receive his father’s Title II Social Security benefits, after his father’s death, and knowingly concealing his father’s death from the SSA.  Howard admitted to calling the Florence, Ky., SSA office and impersonating his deceased father, in an attempt to ensure wrongful continuation of monthly payments.  The total amount that Howard fraudulently received from the SSA was $82,565.10.  As part of the sentence, the district court ordered Howard to repay this amount in restitution.

Robert M. Duncan, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and Wayne R. Warren, Resident Agent-in-Charge, SSA Office of the Inspector General, Atlanta Field Division, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was directed by the SSA-OIG.  The United States was represented by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James T. Chapman.

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