Wise County Man Pleads Guilty to Lying About Disability

Abingdon, VIRGINIA – A Wise County man, who claimed to be to be too disabled to work and as a result received over $92,000 in disability benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board, pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Abingdon to making a false statement, United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen announced.

Jeffrey L. Bates, 59, pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of making a false statement. At sentencing, Bates faces a maximum statutory sentence of up to five years in prison. The defendant has also agreed to pay $92,081 in restitution to the Railroad Retirement Board. Bates will be sentenced April 16, 2019.

“Protecting government-sponsored benefits programs from fraud and abuse is among our top priorities,” U.S. Attorney Cullen stated today.  “False statements in connection with these programs, like the ones the defendant admitted to making in this case, are violations of federal law and will result in criminal prosecution.” 

According to evidence presented at yesterday’s guilty plea hearing by Special Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen Carnell, Bates had been receiving disability benefits from the Railroad Retirement Board since 2001. In 2015, the Railroad Retirement Board received a hotline complaint stating that Bates was self-employed in the lawn care business. The defendant filled out a form, as required by the Railroad Retirement Board, in 2016, wherein he falsely stated his self-employment status and the earnings he received.

The investigation of the case was conducted by the USRRB- OIG. Special Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen Carnell is prosecuting the case for the United States.