Scott County man pleads guilty to Social Security fraud

A Scott County man pleaded guilty on Friday to felony fraud charges before U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. in Cape Girardeau, the Standard Democrat reported.

Matthew H. Myers of Scott County entered a plea of guilty to two counts of making a false statement to Social Security and four counts of failure to disclose an event to Social Security.

Myers now faces a maximum of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, followed by a period of supervised release of three years. Sentencing has been set for April 9 in Cape Girardeau.

With his plea, Myers admitted that in February 2001, he applied for Social Security Disability benefits and was approved. Myers then began receiving monthly benefit payments for himself, as well as monetary benefits for his wife and two minor children. Existing Social Security rules allowed Myers to earn a limited amount of money for limited work.

After Myers began receiving the disability benefits, the Social Security Administration learned that Myers was and had been working full-time as a carpet layer for a business in Sikeston. Myers, however, gave a signed written statement to Social Security on Sept. 30, 2005, that he had not worked since he filed for disability benefits in April 2001.

On Feb. 15, 2006, Myers was interviewed by a special agent with the Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration. In another written and signed statement by Myers on Feb. 15, 2006, Myers stated that he had not performed any work since 2003 except for very limited work. Later in February 2009, Myers' wife was interviewed and revealed that Myers had been working full time since 2001 and instead of reporting the wages he earned under his own Social Security number, both the carpet company and Myers reported the earnings under his wife's Social Security number. Myers was interviewed again and admitted that he made false statements to the Social Security Administration, to Special Agent Keith Schilb and failed to report his employment and earnings. Myers admitted knowing that if he had reported all his earnings he would not have been entitled to continue to receive Social Security disability benefits for himself, or family.

Social Security calculated an overpayment to Myers in the approximate sum of $95,504 through January 2009.

In addition, Myers received Social Security Disability Insurance benefit payments totaling $11,016, between December, 2004 and November, 2005; $11,472, between December, 2005 and November, 2006; $11,844, between December, 2006 and November, 2007; and $12,120, between December, 2007 and November, 2008. The benefits were received because Myers knowingly concealed and failed to disclose the fact he had worked full-time for the carpet company, which would have disqualified him from receiving the benefits. In so doing, Myers fraudulently secured disability insurance benefit payments.