Retired POS Chicago Police Commander Kenneth Johnson gets sweetheart deal. He belongs in the big house.
Posted on 12/03/2019 2:09:00 PM PST by csvset
A former Chicago police commander once considered a rising star in the department was spared federal prison Tuesday for pocketing more than $360,000 in Social Security payments intended for his mother that he continued to collect for nearly 25 years after her death.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah sentenced Kenneth Johnson to two years of probation and ordered him to serve the first six months in community confinement, likely at the Salvation Army.
. In handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Manish Shah said Johnson’s decision to betray the public’s trust was “infuriating.” “How many times (as a police commander) did you plead with people to come forward and accept responsibly for something?” Shah said. “Yet all that while, there was a crime being committed that you knew all about, and you did nothing to stop it.”
Johnson, 55, pleading guilty in May to theft of government funds, admitting he bilked the Social Security Administration out of a total of $363,064 from the time of his mother’s death in May 1994 to November 2017 when the scheme was uncovered. In seeking up to two years in prison, federal prosecutors revealed in a court filing that Johnson withdrew some of the stolen funds from an ATM at the Englewood District police station. In 2016, Johnson used stolen funds to pay for a hotel room in Phoenix, according to the filing. Two months later, he used other Social Security payments for round-trip airfare to Los Angeles to attend a “crime-fighters conference,” prosecutors said.
The scheme was eventually unraveled by a watchdog arm of the Social Security Administration that red-flagged Johnson’s mother’s account in 2017 because she had not used Medicare, even though at that point she would have been 96, according to the prosecution filing..
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Retired POS Chicago Police Commander Kenneth Johnson gets sweetheart deal. He belongs in the big house.
Sooo,
If you or I stole $360,000.00 from the federal gub mint would you be in prison?
Oh, hell yeah.
Is it cause he’s a black guy that he’s being treated this way?
Or a dirty cop?
Does he have to pay anything back?
I did not see any mention of restitution in the article. I’ll check other sources and see.
It seems odd that the Social security administration, apparently does not get notified of people’s deaths.
I am sure a lot of this overpayment of benefits happens because benefits are paid electronically and automatically. I heard if a similar case in which the recipient had a joint bank account with her daughter. The daughter just accepted that this money showed up in her account every month and never said anything about it.
You betcha.
Oh good grief.
The Chicago way.
I read the article, what about paying back the $363,064 Judge? I did not see that mentioned? HOW ABOUT THE MONEY JUDGE?
Pretty widespread fraud crime. And the penalties are less severe than I’d imagined.
Would have gone on collecting illicit SSA checks for years,
“But NOOOOOO!!! Not you!!! You hadda get caught passed out in your cruiser, you stupid drunk!! Mayor had no choice but to bust your @zz but you still got off cheap!”
Otherwise, just business as usual in the Windy City.
Then there’s the cost of the SSI fraud unit which is considerable. The harder it is to police this activity the harder the punishment should be. Doesn’t the coroner notify the appropriate government authorities including the elections department?
Once again, our two-tiered “justice” system on display.
::... ordered him to serve the first six months in community confinement, likely at the Salvation Army.
~~~~~~~~~
What? Does the Salvation Army have a stockade now?
No mention of restitution in this article either. It does say his salary was $160,000 a year.
You posted the link, so where is the article?
So, that means he is also guilty of Bank Fraud.
Didn’t see that in the list of Charges.
In Chicago, everyone is Jussie Smollett. Well, anyone with a certain Ethnicity anyway.
That was a DIFFERENT crook. Special Ed, the Superintendent of Police, was fired today for trying to hide the DUI. This clown was farther down the food chain.
If you are I stole $360,000 from the federal gubmint would you be in prison? NO. You’d be a Democrat in Congress, as a Mayor or Governor.
Bada Bing, Bada Boo!!
Thirteen years of fraud to the tune of $360,000, and his penalty is similar to that of Maria Butina, who dared flirt with someone from the NRA without registering as a foreign agent.
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