PORTLAND, Maine — A Lisbon man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to 17 counts related to the use of his 7-year-old son’s Social Security number.
Mark Judd, 33, was indicted earlier this month by a federal grand jury on two counts of theft of federal funds, seven counts of making false statements, four counts of Social Security fraud, and five counts of aggravated identity theft.
A trial date was tentatively set for June 4.
Judd allegedly used his son’s Social Security number to obtain unemployment while he was receiving benefits from MaineCare, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families using his own Social Security number.
He obtained benefits illegally between August 2010 and April 2012, according to the indictment.
Judd originally was charged in February in a complaint that alleged he earned nearly $16,000 in 2010 and 2011 using his son’s Social Security number. Judd made a first appearance in federal court in Portland on Feb. 14 and was released two days later on $5,000 unsecured bail.
A motion was filed Tuesday to revoke Judd’s bail, alleging that since his release, he lied about where he was living in an attempt to qualify for MaineCare, SNAP and TANF benefits.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled to be held May 9.
If convicted, Judd faces up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million on the most serious charges of lying on separate loan applications in 2004 and 2005 and lying on an application for a credit card in 2005. On the other 14 counts, he faces between two and 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
Judd also is expected to be ordered to pay restitution if convicted.
Where are all the comments stating there is no welfare fraud here in Maine. I’ll bet this one will be hard to get under the radar . Common liberals , some comments about how the system abused him .
The thing is that in this case it seems to agencies failed for a long time. The Social Security Administration let this happen for quite awhile, thats a fail on the Federal Level. The State never bothered to check things out on their end and that is a fail on the State Level.
“The wheels of justice grind slowly, but exceedingly fine” – author unknown by me.
If this was a state case then I would agree with the poster. Thankfully it is not. Thus we can expect this person to be punished appropriately.
The biggest fail in this whole scenario is that of personal integrity on the part of the man charged with fraud. He chose to use the Social Security number of his minor child to commit fraud for his personal gain. There should also be a charge of identity theft as well.
You are right. There should be an identity theft charge. And yes, the biggest fail was on the part of the man who was willing to mess up his son´s credit and financial future.
Who said it never happens? Please, names and quotes.
You must be somewhat new to these pages.
I don’t say NEVER, but the fraud from our own government officials/bankers and the GOP giving themselves billions is much larger fraud than welfare folks. This is the GOP wanting everyone to attack the poor while they grab all the big bucks out of the other hand!! If you don’t see these smoke and mirror tactics………………
I wondered why my sec 8 tenants bills came in a two year olds name…
why are you reading your tenants mail?
Nothing to see here….it nevers happens
Check these out. Threads on welfare fraud convictions going back a few years.
http://www.asmainegoes.com/content/lepage-double-number-dhhs-fraud-investigators
http://www.asmainegoes.com/content/ok-just-little-too-much-welfare-abuse
There are more investigations coming, and more convictions, as well.
Welfare fraud is nothing compared to government fraud.
And you and I both pay for each type of fraud. I dont care to pay for either kind.
I checked them out. More like threads of extremely hateful people who think they know how the EBT program works. Nothing more.
If you care to read about welfare fraud relatated to EBT cards and what is being uncovered check out the Boston Herald. Of course that is reporting on abuses in Massachusetts but I would think it would be pretty naive to think that some of the same things are not occuring here, albeit on a smaller scale.
I’ve got no doubt that the fraud exists. It exists and its rampant. My comment was just about the links that were given.
There is a lot of generalization and stereotyping that occurs. But I too think there is a real problem.
His kid will be middle age if he gets what’s coming to him and the judge throws the book at this guy.
Nah, it’ll never happen.
All but 30 days suspended, $100 fine. WE lose.
This is a federal case which will be prosecuted in Federal Court. The defendant, once he is found guilty(he will eventually plead guilty) will be sentenced according to guidelines set forth by the US Sentencing Commission. Every federal crime fits within a points scale. The points increase for things like aggravating factors(committing the same crime more that once is such factor) previous criminal history and other factors.
The good thing about the federal system is that the sentences are mandatory unless the judge uses his discretion to depart from the sentence and either issues less of sentence or more of a sentence. In the case of a deferment the judge must issue a report to the Attorney General of the Unites States explaining why he departed from the mandatory sentence. Those departures are very rare.
This defendant will end up paying 100 dollars for every crime he is convicted of or pleads guilty to. This is called a special assessment fee and everyone convicted of a Federal Crime pays it for each conviction.
In my estimation(knowing about the federal sentencing guidelines) with his prior criminal history, you will see this gentlemen sentenced to at least five years to 7 years in federal prison. Federal prison sentences are issued in months and therefore he is looking at somewhere from 60 to 84 months. If it is determined he broke his pre-trial release conditions then that will enhance his sentence as well.
It appears the defendant falls in Offense Level D with a Criminal History Category of 5. He will most likely be allowed to plead guilty to the highest charge and see the lesser charges dropped. Thefore as I said, he is most likely looking at 60 months in prison at least and I would not be suprised if it is closer to 8 years or in that case 96 months.
Thank you for the details.
It might be a better service if the paper ran a tally of the number of fraud cases successfully prosecuted in Maine and the amount of money that was saved by prosecuting them. While mind like woodchuckranger would have us believe that fraud is rampant in Maine, there seems to be very little factual evidence to support the claim. It’s rare enough that when a fraud case is discovered, it still makes the paper.
Read the links I posted elsewhere on the page. There’s more than a “few” convictions already, and more to come.
I think what is telling is that most of the cases we read about seem to report that the feds determine the reciepient is scamming the Social Security System. In these cases the person charged with the fraud also is often collecting benefits that the State is in charge of administering. In this case it appears that both the federal and state governments did not determine this persons eligibilty to collect any benefits or bother to see if the SSN attached to these benefits belonged to an eligble person.
I cannot remember ever reading about the State of Maine being the first to discover someone was scamming the programs they administer and then determine they were scamming social security too.
I have read of the State of Maine uncovering unemployment fraud cases. Those seem to get reported a bit more frequently. You dont hear much about tax fraud either. Perhaps its only the more egregious cases that get reported?
How dose he get unemployment in his sons name? He is 33 did his son work? I just do not get it last time I tried to get unemployment I was not I could not get it because by boss at the time did not pay it in. So much for being an hourly employee .
Employers must pay unemployment insurance to cover their employees as if they dont they can face prison themselves. One way that some employers get around this is to classify certain workers as independent contractors. Perhaps you were classified this way. Even if your employer did not pay into unemployment you would still get unemployment insurance payments(if you were in fact an employee) as each State maintains a pool of funds to cover people that fall into the situation you say you found yourself in.
Yes some employer cheat the system . Break rules saying you were an independent contractor. Even though you did not meet the standards for being one IE. payed by hour. Told what hours to work etc. I remember getting a 1099 for an $8/ hour job being lied to about how I was hired . After paying both halves of SS an taxed I was not making minimum wage.
In that case Bob, I have to agree with you that what the employer did was not right. However I think you would have been able to go to the Labor Department and dispute your Independent Contractor Status. I think sometimes shady employers count on the fact that most employees wont do that.
I agree with you that when employers operate this way it is unfair.
If convicted, does this mean that he’ll have to give up his second vehicle and ATV? This guy appears to give new meaning to the phrase ‘living large on the taxpayers’.
He was not stealing from the hard working folks of Maine, he is entitled to that money. Just ask a liberal.
He will get a slap on the wrist. How much ya wanna bet one of his conditions will be no drugs or alcohol
It sounds as if lying on loan applications and credit card applications, is worse than the other stuff. Could I have misread the artical?