GREENBELT, Md. (AP) - A former Maryland physician has been sentenced to two years in prison for engaging in a scheme to fraudulently obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars in her deceased mother’s retirement and pension benefits.
U.S. District Judge Paul Xinis also on Friday ordered 59-year-old Crystal Mebane McGinty, of Silver Spring, to forfeit and pay restitution totaling $517,000.
McGinty pleaded guilty in October to charges of mail fraud and theft of government property.
U.S. Attorney Robert Hur’s office said in a news release that McGinty posed as her deceased mother for 13 years to continue collecting her mother’s Social Security Administration retirement payments and City of New York teachers’ pension payments.
The Maryland Board of Physicians suspended McGinty’s license in January. She permanently surrendered her medical license in April.
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