In the eyes of the U.S. Social Security Administration, Mrs. B. Taylor had collected her benefits every month for 33 years.
Not too unusual — except for the fact Mrs. Taylor died in 1981.
U.S. District Judge Arguello in Denver sentenced Taylor’s surviving daughter-in-law, Camille Taylor, to six months in prison on Tuesday for fraudulently taking the payments — a grand total of $224,339.
Camille Taylor, 69, never notified the government that her mother-in-law had died. The government realized that Mrs. B. Taylor was dead in 2014 and prosecuted Camille Taylor for theft. She recently pleaded guilty to four counts of theft of government funds.
Following her release from a federal prison, Camille Taylor, who uses a walker, will serve another six months of home detention. She must also pay $224,339 in restitution to the government.
When Mrs. B. Taylor died on June 23, 1981, the federal government had been sending her monthly benefits electronically to her Sunflower Bank account, court records indicate. At the time, Camille Taylor was a co-signer on the account. She did not notify the government about her mother-in-law’s death, as required by law.
The money kept flowing into the account after Mrs. B. Taylor’s burial and every month Camille Taylor would empty out her deceased mother-in-law’s account.
When questioned about the payments in September of 2015, Camille Taylor confessed that she took the money.
