A former social security employee is guilty of aggravated identity theft and conspiring to receive money from accounts of deceased. US attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei announced that David Lam admitted to the crime. He worked at the office in Houston as an operation supervisor and claims specialist.
In his plea, he admitted to stealing the personal identifying information of men who were recently deceased. He’d then use the information to create fraud applications to gain the benefits. Lam worked with women who had children and needed funds from deceased fathers and stepfathers.
He conspired with them to file for fraud survivor benefits, which made the women get benefits even from men who they had no connection with. It was a well-thought-out scheme to get money for both parties. Lam got the date of birth, social security number and names of the dead men to create the files. He’d then split the funds from the women.
These women sent him money through apps like CashApp, Chime and Zelle. Now, he has pleaded guilty and will take the responsibility for the stolen funds. He has misappropriated up to $3,346,280 which is a heavy loss to the SSA. He’ll be paying this money back in restitution, as per United States Attorney’s Office.
Wow. I have a feeling this is just a drop in the bucket.
He was an SSA supervisor! Unbelievable! There is NO WAY he did this alone.https://t.co/ELRMopUd8h pic.twitter.com/3KzcaHx7nO— ChatterBoxMuse ❂ (@ChatterBox_Muse) June 13, 2025
He will be sentenced on September 12th as notified by the district judge Sim Lake. He may get five years in federal prison for a conspiracy charge and his fine will be up to $250,000 which can be the maximum fine imposed.
Moreover, he’ll get two years in prison for aggravated identity theft. He will have to serve this after the federal sentence is over. Many people worry about their social security numbers getting stolen and identity theft. However, this has been a different case as the employee is involved in the conspiracy.
Sometimes, family members keep receiving benefit checks from social security when their spouse or parent dies. They don’t notify the authorities about the deceased. This is also termed as fraud and can land someone in jail along with a heavy fine. What Lam pulled was on a large scale as it involved several women and fraud applications of deceased men.
Even Elon Musk has warned and spoken about the social security fraud and how the government is losing half a trillion due to this. During his term as DOGE head, he claimed that they would be careful with the benefits given to avoid waste. Till 2022 data, there have been up to $521 billion loss to the government due to fraud social security applications.
