New Orleans Sheriff's Deputy Pleads Guilty To Theft Of Government Funds

ATLANTA - Janet Baquet, a former Sheriff's deputy in Orleans Parish, La., has pleaded guilty to charges that the she stole nearly $90,000 in Social Security benefits from the federal government. 

“This defendant’s repeated acts of criminal conduct lasted for more than eight years and cost the United States Treasury nearly $90,000,” said United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.  “She deliberately and methodically broke the law that she swore to uphold as a deputy sheriff.”

“The Social Security Administration, Office of the Inspector is grateful for the support and diligent efforts by the US Attorney’s Office in prosecuting those that seek to  defraud the Social Security Administration’s benefit programs,” said Thomas Caul, Special Agent in Charge, of the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.      

According to United States Attorney Yates, the charges and other information presented in court: Baquet’s father, who was a Social Security retirement benefits recipient, died in May 2006, and her mother died one month later.  After her parents death, her father’s Social Security benefits continued to be deposited in a bank account that Baquet’s parents shared.  For more than eight years, Baquet stole her deceased father’s benefits by writing checks to herself out of her parents’ joint account, forging her deceased mother’s signature on the checks.  In total, she received $89,379.13 of government benefits to which she was not entitled. 

Sentencing for Baquet, 56, of New Orleans, La., is scheduled for March, 4, 2015.

This case is being investigated by the Social Security Administration - Office of the Inspector General.

Special Assistant United States Attorney Diane C. Schulman is prosecuting the case.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov or (404) 581-6016.  The Internet address for the home page for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division is http://www.justice.gov/usao/gan/.