Judge indicted for role in conspiracy to defraud government of $600 million

[Of course this happened in the south. ---Bozo]

Rss@dailykos.com (josie Duffy) · Friday, April 08, 2016, 10:00 pm

David Black Daugherty, a retired judge in South Carolina, was charged in an 18-count federal indictment on Wednesday after he and others allegedly illegally siphoned $600 million in federal disability payments. From Myrtle Beach Online:

“The defendants are charged with designing an intricate scheme, using their expertise and positions of authority to fraudulently induce payment of $600 million in federal disability and healthcare benefits,” Assistant Attorney General Caldwell said in a press release. “While Social Security disability programs are designed to support the disabled, the defendants allegedly used it to enrich themselves. Today’s arrests demonstrate, however, that the Criminal Division will root out greed and corruption wherever they may be found.”

The indictment alleges that from October 2004 to Feb. 13, 2012, [Attorney Eric] Conn, Daugherty and [psychologist Alfred] Adkins conspired to defraud the government by submitting false and fraudulent medical documentation to the Social Security Administration so as to have the SSA pay claimants’ retroactive disability benefits, continue to pay claimants’ disability benefits in the future, award Medicare and Medicaid benefits to claimants and pay Conn’s attorney fees, officials said.

The three men's actions led the Social Security Administration to give more than $600 million in disability payments in over 2,000 cases. They personally received about $5 million over eight years.

Until his retirement in 2011, Daugherty was a former SSA administrative law judge and had worked for the SSA for 21 years. His job was to handle the claims of Kentucky claimants. From Myrtle Beach Online:

Conn allegedly filed disability applications with the Prestonsburg Field Office, irrespective of the claimants’ residence in an effort to ultimately bring the cases before the Huntington Hearing Office, where Daugherty either self-assigned or directed others to assign those cases to himself, according to the release.

Daugherty allegedly solicited Conn to submit falsified medical evidence so that Daugherty could issue fully favorable decisions. Adkins and others performed pretextual physical and mental evaluations on claimants, the indictment states. They routinely prepared and signed evaluation reports indicating that claimants had limitations considered disabling by the SSA, irrespective of claimants’ actual physical or mental conditions, according to the indictment.

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