A 76-year-old woman who stole benefits sent to her dead mother from the Department of Veterans Affairs has been ordered to pay back nearly half a million dollars.
The robbery continued for 48 years. It started in 1973.
An Ohio federal court judge ordered Irene Ferrin to pay $461,780 and serve a year of house arrest for a scheme that involved forging her mother’s signature on more than 500 monthly payments over the years, Military reported. how.
Ferrin claimed she had several siblings under the age of 18 to care for.
“While this may explain (though does not excuse) his decision to take VA benefits for a short period of time in the early 1970s, it does not remotely begin to justify his subsequent theft from the VA during the following four decades,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
People walk past gravestones with wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery during Wreaths Across America Day in Arlington, Va., Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019.
Sait Serkan Gurbuz/AP
Ferrin falsified change of address forms and various other documents over the years.
When the plan started, payments were $250, but they rose over the years to $1,357 a month.
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The VA eventually discovered the theft and Ferrin was charged with theft of public money. He pleaded guilty in August 2022.
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