14 DAY TRIAL // A total of 75 individuals have been charged for their involvement in a massive Social Security Disability Insurance fraud conspiracy in Puerto Rico. Most of the suspects have been arrested.
Authorities say Samuel Torres Crespo, a former Social Security Administration (SSA) employee, completed SSA disability insurance applications on behalf of various individuals to make it appear as if they were disabled.
Three doctors – Wildo Vargas, Rafael Miguez Balseiro, and Erica Rivera Castro – evaluated, treated and diagnosed the claimants to justify an inexistent disability to trick the SSA into giving them benefit payments.
For his services, Torres Crespo collected 25% of the retroactive sum paid out by the SSA, but no more than $6,000 (€4,500). On the other hand, the doctors received between $150 (€112) and $500 (€374) for submitting the false medical reports to the SSA.
“The claimants who defrauded the SSA by feigning medical disabilities, and the physicians who provided false medical justifications for these claimed disabilities, are perpetrating a theft of public funds,” said United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez.
“Our office is committed to prosecuting those who abuse Federal programs and steal public monies, to the detriment of legitimate beneficiaries who have a legal right to the assistance monies,” Rodríguez-Vélez added.
Special Agent-in-Charge Edward J. Ryan of the Office of the Inspector General, Office of Investigations of the SSA stated, “This fraud conspiracy scheme involving unscrupulous medical professionals, a non-attorney representative, and SSA disability claimants has been exposed and those involved are being brought to justice.
He added, “It was only after an extensive analysis of medical source documentation in voluminous SSA files that SSA and OIG identified the fraudulent pattern investigated by SSA OIG, the FBI San Juan Office, and the Puerto Rico Police Department.”
Ryan explained that numerous interviews and hundreds of surveillance operations were carried out to crack down on the massive fraud operation.