Press Release
U.S. Department of Justice
United States Attorney
District of Hawaii
PJKK Federal Building (808) 541-2850
300 Ala Moana Blvd., Room 6-100 FAX (808) 541-2958
Honolulu, Hawaii 96850
For Immediate Release
March 18, 2008
P R E S S R E L E A S E
HONOLULU, HAWAII - United States Attorney Ed Kubo announced today that on March 17, 2008, Chief District Judge Helen Gillmor sentenced Patricia Pendleton, age 79, to 5 years probation and six months of home detention with electronic monitoring following her guilty plea to improperly receiving social security benefits from 2002 to 2006. Pendleton was also ordered to make restitution in the amount of approximately $46,000.
Pendleton was sentenced for using two different identities and social security numbers in order to receive social security pensions resulting in an overpayment of approximately $50,000 to her. She had received widowers benefits based upon her marriage to a deceased former wage contributor to the social security system. These benefits were electronically deposited into a First Hawaiian Bank account. Pendleton also received benefits based upon her own wage earner contributions to the social security system but under a fictitious name and a falsely acquired social security number which were electronically deposited into an American Savings Bank account.
The Social Security Administration discovered the fraud while conducting an initiative specifically looking for beneficiaries receiving multiple benefits under fraudulent identities and/or multiple social security numbers.
Pendleton, a former tax auditor for the state and private industry, started using the fraudulent identity and falsely acquired social security number in the 1960s and began collecting the benefits in the late 80s and early 90s while in her 60s.
Also on February 14, 2008, Chief Judge Gillmor sentenced Jeffrey Keola (age 47) to eight months imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Keola, a former compliance auditor for HMSA, earlier pled guilty to improperly receiving approximately $83,000 of social security benefit payments from 2000 to 2005 which were intended for his father who, unbeknown to the Social Security Administration had passed away in 2000.
The Social Security Office of the Inspector General conducted the investigations.
Anyone having information about Social Security fraud is encouraged to call their toll free Fraud Hotline at: 800-269-0271 or oig.hotline@ssa.gov by e-mail. All calls will be kept strictly confidential.
The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Hino.
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