Somerset County man sentenced to 12 months in prison for stealing over $600K in program benefits
SOMERSET, N.J. (Somerset County) – A Somerset County man was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for fraudulently obtaining approximately $691,465.44 in benefits from various programs and institutions, including the Social Security Administration and the United States Department of Defense, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Alina Habba.
Steven Jones, 66, of Somerset, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert Kirsch to theft of public money. Judge Kirsch imposed the sentence on July 25, in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, Steven Jones’ father received several federal retirement benefits before he died in October 2004. After Jones’s father died, Jones intentionally falsified his father’s death certificate so that the federal agencies would continue to issue the retirement benefits. On two occasions, Jones had a person impersonate his father to a federal agency so that the agency would think his father was still alive and continue payments. The investigation revealed that Jones unlawfully collected these payments for nearly 20 years, from October 2004 to December 2023.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Kirsch sentenced Jones to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $691,465.44 in restitution.
