New Jersey woman indicted for stealing $1 million in Social Security benefits

A New Jersey woman was indicted for stealing over $1 million of federal benefits meant for her deceased aunt over a 25-year period.

Janis Miller, 77, of South Orange, New Jersey, is charged by indictment with one count of wire fraud.

According to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger, documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Miller’s aunt died in 1998.

Unaware of her death, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) paid approximately $1.01 million in retirement and survivor benefits to the bank account of Miller’s deceased aunt.

By debit card, cash withdrawals, and forged checks made out to a company Miller controlled, the deceased woman’s niece unlawfully disbursed virtually all of those embezzled funds.

In 2022, to continue her unlawful receipt of the benefits, Miller, in a telephone conversation with an SSA employee, impersonated her deceased aunt and provided her aunt’s approximate birthdate.

OPM and SSA discovered the fraud and discontinued the benefits in 2023, around 25 years after Miller began stealing those benefits.

The count of wire fraud is punishable by a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of the greatest of either $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain or loss caused by the offense, whichever is greatest.

Sellinger credited special agents of the Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector General, Boston-New York Field Division, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Bradley Parker; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Office of the Inspector General, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Paul Kimball, with the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Thypin-Bermeo of the General Crimes Unit in Newark represents the government in the case.

The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and Sellinger said the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.