Morris County woman charged with disability benefits fraud and making false statements
OAK RIDGE, NJ (Morris County) – A Morris County woman charged with fraud and making false statements will make her initial court appearance Wednesday, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger.
Pamela VanSyckle, 60, of Oak Ridge, is charged with one count of federal employee compensation fraud and one count of making false statements. She made her initial appearance Wednesday afternoon before U.S Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte in Newark federal court and was released on $100,000 unsecured bond, Sellinger said.
According to documents filed in this case, VanSyckle works for the U.S. Postal Service as a rural carrier. In September 2020, she signed and filed a claim form alleging that she sustained an injury at work. As a result of that injury, she claimed that she was unable to carry out her duties as a mail carrier. While she received disability benefits from September 2020 to September 2023, she signed and filed multiple federal claim forms alleging that she had not worked or had outside employment. Based on the submission of those claims, she received over $155,000 in disability benefits from the federal government.
During the time in which she received disability benefits, however, VanSyckle was in fact working as the owner and operator of a travel agency. While claiming that she was neither self-employed nor involved in any business enterprise, she performed a variety of services for the travel agency including handling sales, marketing and financial operations.
The fraud and false statement charges each carry a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of $250,000 or twice the gross amount of any pecuniary gain that any persons derived from the offense, whichever is greater, Sellinger said.
