Konawa Woman Sentenced To 60 Months Probation, $45,000 Restitution For Theft Of Government Funds

MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that JOANNA MARY HARJO, age 63, of Konawa, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 5 years of probation, to be supervised by the United States Probation Office, and ordered to pay restitution to the United States Social Security Administration in the amount of $45,736.08 for THEFT OF GOVERNMENT FUNDS, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 641.

The Information alleged that on or about September 2008, and continuing to, on or about March 2015, in the  Eastern District of Oklahoma the Defendant, JOANNA MARY HARJO, concealed the true nature of her living arrangements and marital status from the United States Social Security Administration so that she could receive more Social Security Supplemental Security Income benefits than what she would have been eligible to receive, and thus, converted money belonging to the United States Social Security Administration to her own use or gain knowing it was not hers and intending to deprive the United States Social Security Administration of the use and benefit of this money.

The charge arose from an investigation by the United States Social Security Administration.

The Honorable James H. Payne, District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, in Muskogee, presided over the hearing.

Assistant United States Attorney Kristin Harrington represented the United States.