Two Miami Residents Sentenced in Social Security Fraud Scheme Involving Stolen Identities

Two Miami-Dade County residents were sentenced to prison yesterday, for their involvement in a social security fraud scheme.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Margaret Moore-Jackson, Special Agent in Charge, Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General (SSA-OIG), made the announcement. 

Jeffrey Joseph, 26, and Rosetta Latricia Tooks, 25, both of Miami, were sentenced to 65 months and 42 months in prison, respectively, for their participation in a scheme to defraud the Social Security Administration. Upon completion of their period of incarceration, the defendants will be on supervised release for two years.  Joseph and Tooks previously pled guilty to access device fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1029 and aggravated identity theft, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A.

According to court documents, Joseph and Tooks used stolen identities to file fraudulent Social Security Retirement Income Benefit (RIB) claims.  The illicit scheme resulted in the payment of $81,124.90 in fraudulent RIB claims.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of SSA-OIG.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Timothy Abraham and Frank Maderal.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.