Man admits to stealing $300K of late father’s Social Security benefits

A former Atlanta man has admitted that he stole his dead father’s Social Security for more than 20 years, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Timothy S. Lenon, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government funds for stealing more than $300,000 of his father’s Social Security benefits, the office of U.S. Attorney John Horn said in a news release.

According to prosecutors, Lenon’s father died on Jan. 16, 1994. At the time, Social Security retirement and New York City pension system benefits were deposited into his bank account. Lenon never closed his father’s account and never notified the Social Security Administration or the New York City pension system of his father’s death, officials said.

The pension benefits continued to be deposited into his father’s account until 2008, officials said. The Social Security benefits continued to be deposited into the account until April 2014.

Lenon, now a Philadelphia resident, used the money to live beyond his means, prosecutors said. Bank records showed Social Security money paid for multiple credit cards in his and his partner’s names, multiple Amazon purchases, utility bills for himself and his family and phone bills.

Lenon told investigators he thought the bank account was closed after his father's death, according to prosecutors.

However, “two years after his father's death, Lenon contacted Social Security and changed the address on his father's account in order to maintain the appearance that his father was still alive,” Horn said.

Eventually, Lenon acknowledged he spent some money from the account but said he only did so for a two-year period. Evidence showed he spent all the money in the account.

In total, Lenon stole more than $309,000 from Social Security and more than $157,000 from the New York City pension system, Horn said.

“Lenon pocketed his deceased father’s Social Security payments for over 20 years, using the money to pay his own personal expenses,” Horn said. “His theft ultimately diverted these scarce resources from those citizens who truly needed them to live.”

Sentencing for Lenon is scheduled for July 19.

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