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 ...
Only if someone reports a person died does it get recorded. Sounds like these people never reported the death. Kept bodies in the house, the tub, for years.
True, or they died overseas and were buried there.
When my grandpa died at hospital. My grandma and I left and went directly to the bank and cashed out the accounts leaving only a few dollars. They didn’t have much and his SS check hadn’t been deposited/arrived yet. So no fraud- just their money from savings, checking, etc.
That’d require a visit to the local SSI Office, and ID yourself, which I had to do last year, when Dad passed at 94, and I needed to stop his payments, with death certificate and some other documents. Take a number and wait 2-3hrs.
He’d be “Epsteined” as soon as the GP could get to him. They’d have to send him to a ‘special place’ to serve the time. Ex-cops don’t last long in prison.
The double standard in this country is effing incredible.
Of course he was.
Good grief...Everyone on board the gravy train..This is so common nowadays, with the hubby and the wifey both working for local governments while doubling those lucrative gold plated pensions, wages and benefits.
If you have ever worn a badge you can do no wrong and if what you do is so egregious that they must punish you it will be little more then a wrist slap compared to what would have happened to a non-badge wearer.
I’m curious about the tax issue. Did he file bogus returns or none at all ? Simple math 360,000 /23 years = $15,652 a year average, give or take . How did he cover that up ?
It seems odd that the Social security administration, apparently does not get notified of people’s deaths.”””
NEITHER does the county clerk or registrar of voters.....
Looks like the IRS could get him 25 to life for income tax evasion.
You really didn’t get the joke?
$15,652 a year average... I don’t think there’s any tax on that tiny amount. Not sure what the threshold was, but 23yrs ago, there would be tax on it. Not recently, though. He probably didn’t file, and there’s so much crime and corruption going on at IRS and SSI, they didn’t notice it slip between the mounds of paper.
Need a CPA or accountant to make that call. I’m not either.
The only surprising thing about this story is that the SSA actually has a functioning watchdog arm.
There are so many, it's hard to keep track without a scorecard.
Apparently not
Second City Cop says he hasn’t. The blog has quite a bit of info on this.
Prosecution probably looked at the odds of a Chicago jury convicting a prominent black man, and decided to make a deal.
>>>Apparently not<<<
Okay, I’ll give it one more shot.
The original Post I was replying to: >>>But very few cops get jail to no matter what they do<<<
My Reply: Is Hillary a Cop?
I was speaking about Crooked Hillary “Benghazi” Clinton, the Uranium Saleswoman of the Century and a Woman knee deep in the Clinton Slush Fund operation known as the Clinton Foundation to enrich herself. A Woman who currently should be living in Leavenworth Kansas if there was any Justice in the world.
I hope that clarifies things for you. If not, oh well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.