KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) - A Klamath Falls man has pleaded guilty to theft of government funds after collecting more than $458,000 of his aunt’s Social Security checks for years after she died.
Investigators began monitoring George Doumar in February 2020 after the Social Security Administration identified a 114-year-old woman who was still receiving benefits, a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Prosecutors said that would have made her the second-oldest person in the country receiving them.
The last update to her record was a 1989 address change to Klamath Falls, prosecutors said. Her nieces told investigators they remembered her dying in the 1960s or 70s and that they attended her funeral in New York, where she had lived for her entire life.
Investigators obtained a copy of her death certificate saying she died on March 7, 1971 in Brooklyn. They also found that Doumar collected Social Security to the same Klamath Falls address and that he had added his aunt to the checking account he shared with his wife.
When asked about his aunt, Doumar sighed and said it was a long story but that he had been collecting her Social Security, prosecutors said.
As part of his plea agreement Doumar, 74, has agreed to pay back the money to the Social Security Administration.
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