When natural disasters occur in a region, such as the California wildfires, which have burned more than 500,000 acres, people are going to be impacted through loss of homes and resources. One resource every Social Security beneficiary relies upon is their Social Security benefit payments as well as other resources. Nancy Berryhill, Social Security’s acting commissioner, released a statement on the efforts the agency has taken to ensure services continue to be provided to people who live in nearby areas that house Social Security field offices.
Berryhill said the wildfires caused closures, evacuation orders, and damage to the Ferguson, Carr, Crestline, Highland, Ranch, and River areas.
“Our offices in Lakeport, Redding, Sonora, Merced, and Ukiah are all at different stages of recovery,” Berryhill said in a statement to Social Security employees, which can be found here. “Many Redding employees are providing staff support at the Local Assistance Center at the Shasta High School and continue to serve the public. Our employees are processing replacement Social Security card applications, providing benefit verifications, changing addresses, and answering benefit questions. I want to commend our personnel from the San Francisco regional office and those who are on site assisting employees in recovery efforts.”
Appeals Court Upholds Sentence For Conn Accomplice
A former psychologist, who was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiring with Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) David Daugherty and attorney Eric Conn to defraud Social Security out of more than $550 million, lost his appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the sixth district. The Court upheld the conviction and sentence of Alfred Bradley Adkins, 46, who was also ordered to pay $93 million in restitution as part of his sentence.
According to evidence presented at trial, Conn solicited Adkins to sign mental health evaluation forms that Conn previously prepared, and that Adkins never reviewed or provided analysis for. The forms were sent to Social Security, and many times, directly to Daugherty in support of disability determinations. Court records show Conn paid Daugherty more than $600,000 to approve disability claims and Adkins was paid nearly $200,000 for his involvement. Daugherty pled guilty for his role in the scheme and received a four-year prison sentence. Conn pled guilty and received a 12-year prison sentence, but disabled an electronic monitoring device and fled to Central America before he was scheduled to begin his sentence. Authorities caught-up with Conn six months later and Conn pled guilty to additional charges that sentenced him to 27 years in prison.
