By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — The city comptroller has revealed 14 cases of fraudsters cashing the pension checks of dead people for a total of nearly a half million dollars.
One scammer allegedly using a dead man's New York State driver's license to cash 38 pension checks totaling $139,818 between 2007 and 2010, the comptroller's investigation found.
After the dead man's license expired earlier this year, the perpetrator renewed it and continued to cash the checks.
The remaining 13 cases netted $320,152 for people cashing in on dead New Yorkers.
The fraudulent claims were uncovered in February, shortly after Comptroller John Liu took office and began matching pension payments against social security death records, his office said.
"It fuels cynicism and distrust about public pensions, unfairly stigmatizing hardworking employees and retirees who have dedicated years of service doing the right thing for the city," Liu said in a statement.
However, Liu's office stressed that total pension payments in the same period amounted to $29 billion, putting the scale of fraud into perspective.
"Fraud and waste anywhere in city government cannot and should not be tolerated," said Liu.
