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Benefits September 28, 2009
Pension Scammer Given Jail Sentence, Fine
September 28, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A Florida
woman was sentenced last week to a year and a day in prison -
for collecting more than $230,000 in pension benefits from
her mother.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
More precisely, while keeping her dead mother’s body in a bedroom for years, and continuing to collect those payments.
Penelope Sharon Jordan, 61, of Sebastian, Florida, pleaded guilty to theft of government funds in June, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami said, according to Reuters.
Police said when they found the body in a spare bedroom in March, Jordan told them her mother had been dead for at least six years. During the sentencing hearing, evidence indicated that Jordan told her sister their mother had died before December, 2001, and an autopsy on the body found no signs of foul play.
Jordan told the court she concealed her mother’s death in order to continue collecting her Social Security and military pension benefits. Over a six-year period she received $61,415 in Social Security payments and $176,461 from the military pension.
She was ordered to repay $237,876 to the government.