A previous blog post reported that President Donald Trump’s nominee to become Inspector General for the Social Security Administration, Gail S. Ennis, was scheduled to appear at a hearing before the Senate Finance Committee Sept. 13, 2018. Unfortunately, the committee reported that Ennis’ appearance would be postponed. There was no reason given for the postponement and no new date set for Ennis to testify.
Proposed Regulations On Redeterminations
Social Security recently sent the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a set of proposed regulations regarding disability redeterminations when there is a reason to believe fraud might be involved in a claim. Redeterminations are used to review the claims of people who are receiving disability benefits to determine if they are still disabled and entitled to benefits. Social Security needs OMB approval before the regulations can be published in the Federal Register for public comment, and until then there is no way to publicly view the regulations.
Conn Sentenced To An Extra 15 Years
The Department of Justice released information that Eric Conn, a former Social Security disability attorney, was sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison “for his role in retaliating against an informant and fleeing from the United States.” The new sentence will run consecutively with a previous 12-year sentence Conn received for defrauding Social Security out of more than $500 million. Prior to entering prison on the previous 12-year sentence, Conn fled the country, but authorities caught-up to him in Honduras and he was returned to the United States December 5, 2017.
“Thanks to tremendous work of U.S. law enforcement, not only was Conn’s fraud discovered and prosecuted, he was brought back to the United States to answer for his crimes,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski.
Many of Conn’s former clients had their Social Security disability benefits taken away and are still fighting to retain those benefits years after Conn’s scheme was discovered.
