Topsham Couple Pleads Guilty to Diverting Social Security Benefits

Contact: Halsey B. Frank
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Thomas Gerken, 63, and Jill Gerken, 63, of Topsham, Maine, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to defraud the Social Security Administration (“SSA”) by diverting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.  SSI benefits are paid to people who are blind, disabled or elderly and whose income is below specified levels and are to be used to pay for the needs of the beneficiary.
 
According to court records, the defendants are the parents of two disabled children.  In 2004, on the basis of those disabilities, the defendants applied for and were granted SSI benefits for the children.  Jill Gerken was designated as the representative payee for each child.  As such, she was required to use the funds for their benefit, to annually account for her expenditure of the funds, and to periodically submit information to SSA to allow SSA to determine whether the children remained eligible for benefits.

Between January 2007 and July 2013, during a period of time that the children resided on a full-time basis at an assisted living facility, the defendants diverted about $108,000 of the SSI benefits and used them to pay for household expenses, including, but not limited to, their mortgage, a home equity loan, utilities, groceries, travel, restaurant meals and books. Over that period of time, they also failed to pay the assisted living facility even though Jill Gerken falsely certified to SSA each year that she spent the SSI benefits on food and housing at the assisted living facility.

The defendants face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  They will be sentenced after completion of presentence investigation reports by the U.S. Probation Office.  
     
The case was investigated by the SSA, Office of Inspector General.