A Minnesota woman has been sentenced to prison for a 25-year-old Social Security scam, during which she posed as her dead mother, federal prosecutors said.
On Thursday, Aug. 21, Mavious Redmond, 54, of Austin, Minnesota, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison for pretending to be her deceased mother to claim Social Security Retirement Insurance Benefits, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota. Over the course of 25 years, officials believe Redmond fraudulently collected $360,627.
"Redmond’s scheme was brazen and shameless," U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said in the news release. "This wasn’t free money. It was taxpayer money, stolen from a program built on the hard work of Minnesotans who paid in every paycheck."
Redmond's fraud began in January 1999, following the death of her mother, the U.S. attorney's office said. According to the news release, through June 2024, Redmond used her mother's identity as her own, including her biographical information like date of birth and Social Security number on official forms. She also forged her mother's signature, and when necessary, Redmond also acted as her mother on the phone and during in-person visits to the Social Security Administration (SSA) office.
