- Heartbreaking video shows father singing Beatles song to dying infant son after wife died in childbirth
- Little girl decides Santa shouldn't eat alone
- Pregnant woman begging with young boy photographed riding off in Mercedes-Benz
- Woman arrested after couple falls asleep at Golden Corral
- Police: Florida woman says she stabbed, killed boyfriend because he put a curse on her
A former Amazon executive recruiter was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court for Social Security fraud.
Marlene Scott, 42, was sentenced to one month in prison and three years of supervised release.
>> Read more trending stories
Between 2009 and 2012, Scott concealed the fact that her mother and sister, who were welfare recipients, had moved from the United States to Lebanon and therefore were no longer entitled to collect benefits here.
When investigators visited Scott's home, she claimed her mother was visiting her sister and brother in North Carolina and provided a non-working phone number.
Scott falsely told caseworkers that her mother and sister lived with her in the Magnolia neighborhood – and took more than $50,000 in benefits.
U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton noted that Scott took the witness stand and lied when the case went to trial in June 2014.
Leighton said Scott's lies on the witness stand "were a profound offense to the legal system" – and that he might have given her a probationary sentence had she not done that.
In choosing to impose a prison term instead of home confinement, Judge Leighton said the prison time is "important as a message. This institution, the judiciary, cannot and will not knowingly tolerate perjury."
