Social Security Recipient's Death Not Reported, Bank Worker From Passaic Pockets $100,000: Feds

A Passaic man who worked at a bank in Nutley stole more than $100,000 worth of Social Security benefits from the government in the name of a deceased customer, federal authorities charged.

The Social Security Administration wasn't notified of the recipient's death, federal authorities said.
Photo Credit: *Social Security Administration (top) DodgertonSkillhause@https://morguefile.com/p/917712 (bottom)*

Jerry DeMarco

12/14/2023 8:37 a.m.

The Social Security Administration wasn’t notified of the beneficiary’s death and continued depositing benefits at the commercial bank for more than four years, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Wednesday, Dec. 13.

Bank employee Jorge Nova, 35, issued debit cards to himself in the beneficiary’s name that he used to drain the account, Sellinger said.

Nova also “registered new accounts with a money service provider in the name of the deceased beneficiary and withdrew money from a second bank account held in the beneficiary’s name,” the U.S. attorney said.

Special agents from the New York Field Division of the Social Security Administration’s Inspector General’s Office charged Nova with wire fraud. A federal magistrate judge in Newark released him on Wednesday on $100,000 unsecured bond.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachelle M. Navarro of Sellinger’s Organized Crimes and Gang Unit in Newark is handling the case.

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