An Atlanta man has been sentenced for stealing government funds.
The Department of Justice said Tuesday that Rupert Morgan, 53, was sentenced to two years and three months in federal prison for theft of Veterans Administration and Social Security funds paid to a beneficiary who died in 1997.
“Morgan stole more than $400,000 to which he was not entitled,” U.S. attorney Sally Quillian Yates said. “This case is particularly troubling because he had a successful and lucrative career in the legal profession during the entire time period that he was committing this fraud on the United States government.”
Morgan’s prison sentence is to be followed by three years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay restitution of $299,164.75. Morgan was convicted last September after he pleaded guilty.
According to Yates, the charges, and other information presented in court:
In December 1996, Morgan was a paralegal who has been employed by various law firms in the Atlanta area. A Veterans disability and Social Security retirement beneficiary was a patient at a personal care home owned and operated by Morgan’s now ex-wife. Morgan and the beneficiary opened a joint bank account into which benefits were deposited.
The individual died in November 1997. Afterwards, Morgan kept the joint bank account open while VA and Social Security benefits continued to be deposited into the account.
In 2007, ten years after the beneficiary’s death, Morgan opened a second joint bank account in both his and the beneficiary’s names. He then frequently transferred money from the original joint account to the second joint account.
Morgan accumulated large amounts of money in the accounts before he spent it. When the Social Security Administration discovered the fraud, it was able to reclaim more than $101,000 in the defendant’s and beneficiary’s joint bank account.
In total, Morgan stole $258,045 from the VA and $142,372 from Social Security.
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