Federal Reports

The objective was to (1) determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) made payments to beneficiaries and/or representative payees who were deceased according to Alabama, Georgia, or Illinois records and (2) identify non-beneficiaries in the States’ files whose death information did not appear in Agency records.

The objective was to determine whether the Social Security Administration (SSA) complied with its policies and procedures for allegations of misuse by individual representative payees (payee) who served 14 or fewer beneficiaries. Specifically, we examined SSA’s negligence determinations and whether it reimbursed beneficiaries and obtained restitution of misused funds from payees.

Jean Francois Picard, a medical marketer based in Los Angeles, was sentenced in United States District Court, Southern District of California, on June 14, 2021, to 10 months in prison and three years of probation for payment of illegal remunerations. Our investigation found that Picard paid kickbacks to other marketers for facilitating the referral of prescriptions for medically unnecessary compounded drugs and other items reimbursed by health care benefit programs. As a result of the scheme, Amtrak’s insurance providers were fraudulently charged approximately $22,000. Criminal judicial proceedings for other defendants in this case are pending.