A Philadelphia woman was sentenced to 33 months in prison for stealing benefits from her deceased grandmother.
Investigators say Doris Whitfield Richardson, 60, took the Veteran’s Affairs and Office of Personnel Management survivor benefits that were earmarked for her grandmother, who died in 1986.
Richardson did not report this income to the Social Security Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development when she applied for government assistance.
On July 12, Richardson pleaded guilty to four counts of conversion of government funds and eight counts of wire fraud and one count of Social Security fraud. Richardson’s grandmother was receiving survivor benefits from the Office of Personnel Management and the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. After her grandmother died, Richardson continued to receive the benefits that were in her grandmother's name and use them for her own gain.
Richardson engaged in an ongoing scheme in which she opened a P.O. Box and bank accounts in her grandmother’s name, causing a total loss to the government of nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
An investigation that involved the Department of Housing and Urban Development led to Richardson’s arrest. On July 12, she was
In addition to 33 months in prison, Richardson must also pay restitution of $222,641.24, a special assessment of $1300 and will undergo three years of supervised release at the end of her prison term.
