US: California man concedes to 30-year social security fraud
By Ahmad Hadizat Omayoza, Mamos Nigeria
A California man has pleaded guilty to hiding his mother’s death for more than three decades while he collected her social security and military retirement payments.
The US attorney said the scheme is thought to be the longest-running and largest fraud of its kind in the district. Donald Felix Zampach collected more than $830,000 of his deceased mother’s social security and military retirement payments.
US Attorney Randy Grossman stated last week that Donald Felix Zampach of Poway, which is approximately 20 miles north of San Diego, collected over $830,000 in public funds and nearly $30,000 in fraudulently opened credit cards over the course of three decades.
The trick started in 1990 when Zampach’s mom died in Japan, his supplication arrangement states. Not long before her passing, Zampach moved the responsibility for southern California home to himself and petitioned for part 7 liquidation, which doesn’t need a reimbursement plan not at all like the more notable section 11 chapter 11, for his mom’s benefit, government examiners said in an official statement.
Zampach kept his mother’s bank accounts open, forged her signature, and filed false tax returns for many years after her death. The one thing he won’t ever do: notify Social Security of his mother’s passing so that they can stop paying him.
“This litigant didn’t simply inactively gather checks sent to his departed mother. This was an intricate extortion crossing over thirty years that expected forceful activity and duplicity to keep up with the ploy,” Grossman said in a proclamation.
Zampach has been released on bail and will be sentenced on September 20. He has agreed to forfeit his Poway home and use the proceeds to pay his $830,000 restitution bill as part of his plea deal.
