An Oregon man has been charged with cashing more than $458,000 worth of Social Security checks issued in the name of his late aunt over more than four decades, in what authorities described as one of the biggest deceased beneficiary frauds in Social Security Administration history.
George Doumar, 76, of Klamath Falls, Ore., was criminally charged yesterday with theft of public funds and mail theft in connection to the scheme, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon announced.
In May, Doumar even received his dead aunt's $1,200 federal Covid relief check, authorities said. It was cashed with her purported signature two weeks later.
"His aunt’s Social Security checks were often bundled in deposits with other checks made payable to Doumar," the press release said. "Doumar’s account was used to pay for various living expenses including mortgage, car loan, medical, and utility payments."
The first signs of the scheme were uncovered in February, when SSA's anti-fraud office noticed what appeared to be a 114-year-old woman—a supercentenarian in Klamath Falls who would have been the second-oldest living person in the U.S.—receiving Social Security benefits, authorities said. The records also showed that no updates had been made on the woman's benefit record for more than 30 years, leading investigators to believe she was deceased.
Inspectors from SSA's Office of the Inspector General then interviewed two of the check recipient's nieces, both of whom claimed their aunt died in the 1960s or 1970s. They added they had both attended her funeral in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she lived her whole life. One niece told the investigators her aunt was not married and had no children, but recalled that Doumar, her nephew, "was close with her aunt near the time of her death and was named the sole beneficiary of her life insurance payout," the news release said.
After further investigation, according to authorities, SSA confirmed the aunt passed away in 1971, but found that the SSA started sending checks to her six years later in 1977—and has been mailing out monthly benefits in her name ever since.
SSA and Postal Inspection Service investigators were thereafter able to establish that Doumar, in 1989, changed his aunt's mailing address to Frontier Parcel & Fax Service, a commercial mail receiving agency in Klamath Falls that he owned, and added her to his and his wife's shared checking account, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Doumar bought the property seven days before changing his aunt's address, authorities said.
"Investigators soon discovered that Doumar himself was an active Social Security beneficiary and received his checks at the same address," the office said in the release.
In February, investigators also found bank surveillance footage that "showed a man, who appeared to match Doumar’s physical description, depositing one of his aunt’s retirement checks," the news release stated.
Last month, when asked about his aunt during an interview with investigators at his Klamath Falls residence, "Doumar sighed, slumped his head, and stated, 'that’s a long story ... what happened was, well she’s passed and yes, I’ve been collecting her Social Security,'" the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Doumar is scheduled to appear in federal court on August 24. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a $25,000 fine and three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. The office added it will seek restitution on behalf of the SSA.