The scheme resulted in Conn receiving at least $7.1 million in representative fees from the SSA, and Daugherty obligating the SSA to pay in excess of $550 million in lifetime benefits to claimants.
A former administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration (SSA) pleaded guilty Friday for participating in a scheme to fraudulently collect more than $550 million in federal disability payments from the SSA for thousands of claimants.
David Black Daugherty, 81, of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of receiving illegal gratuities. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 25, 2017.
As an administrative law judge at the Social Security hearing office in Huntington, West Virginia (Huntington Hearing Office) for more than 20 years, Daugherty’s primary role was to adjudicate disability claims on behalf of the SSA.
From November 2004 to April 2011, Daugherty collected over $609,000 in cash payments in approximately 3,100 cases from Social Security disability lawyer, Eric Christopher Conn, of Pikeville, Kentucky, for ordering disability benefits for claimants represented by Conn. Daugherty divided cash deposits into several bank branches and accounts in an attempt to conceal the source of the payments.
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