BOSTON, April 13, 2012—A Dorchester woman admitted yesterday to stealing more than $20,000 in government funds intended for her mother, who had died of cancer years earlier, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

EBONY BENSON (D.O.B. 3/13/78) pleaded guilty to two counts of larceny over $250 by single scheme. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol Ball sentenced her to three years of probation and ordered her to make full restitution for the stolen benefits.

Had the case proceeded to trial, Assistant District Attorney Michele Granda of Conley’s Special Prosecutions Unit would have introduced evidence and testimony to prove that Benson was her mother’s primary caregiver and authorized representative for the Social Security Administration.

The evidence would have shown Benson was aware that her mother received monthly benefits under Title XVI of the Social Security Act, which provides for those who are elderly or disabled and have limited financial resources, and Title II, the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program that provides for insured workers upon retirement or disability and eligible survivors of deceased workers.

Granda would have demonstrated that Benson never informed the Social Security Administration of her mother’s 2006 death at age 59 and instead withdrew her monthly benefits from her mother’s bank account, to which she had access. By the time the fraud concluded, the Social Security Administration had deposited approximately $724 per month into the deceased woman’s bank account – a total of $20,446 in benefits Benson used as her own money.

The Social Security Administration learned of the discrepancy in February 2009 through a “mismatch” report of the death from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the months that followed, Benson first claimed her mother had had a stroke and was unable to clear up the discrepancy in person and then rebuffed an offer from SSA employees to visit her at home. She ultimately acknowledged the truth to special agents of the Office of Investigations branch of the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General, who investigated the case.

Specifically, Benson admitted that she had never reported her mother’s death, that she withdrew the continuing payments from her mother’s bank account, that she used the funds for her own purposes, and that she knew each of these actions was wrong.

“I’m sorry for what I did,” Benson admitted in a June 29, 2009, statement to federal agents. “I accept responsibility for using my mother’s SSA payments.”

Benson was represented by attorney John Moss.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.