The woman continued to accept Social Security intended for her mother who passed away in 1999.
MINNEAPOLIS — An Austin woman who admitted to a 25-year-long Social Security scheme in which she posed as her dead mother to federal officials has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison.
Mavious Redmond, 54, pleaded guilty in April. Prosecutors say the scheme began when her mother passed away in 1999. Redmond used her mother’s identity as her own, forged her signature, used her name and date of birth on documents, and impersonated her deceased mother in person and over the phone.
Prosecutors say Redmond fraudulently collected $360,627 in Social Security funds over the 25 years.
“Redmond’s scheme was brazen and shameless,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson in a press release. “For 25 years, she posed as her dead mother to steal more than $360,000 in Social Security benefits. This wasn’t free money. It was taxpayer money, stolen from a program built on the hard work of Minnesotans who paid in every paycheck. Cases like this are part of the broader fraud crisis gripping our state, where too many see taxpayer programs as their own personal piggy banks. We will not let it stand. We will keep bringing prosecutions until every fraudster in Minnesota understands there is a price for stealing from the taxpayers.”
The scheme also meant that Redmond received $3,200 from COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments because the IRS was led to believe Redmond’s mother was still alive.
Prosecutors say Redmond called the SSA in 1999 to ask hypothetically what would happen if her mother passed, at which time officials explained to her the benefits would be terminated.
“Despite specifically seeking out and learning the lawful and appropriate thing to do, Redmond instead chose to defraud the government,” DOJ officials said in a news release.
Redmond will be on supervised release for a year after she leaves prison.