NJ Woman, 77, Embezzles $1M In Benefits Intended For Aunt Who Died In 1998: Indictment

𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A New Jersey woman was indicted by a federal grand jury for stealing more than $1 million of benefits meant for an aunt who died 25 years ago, authorities said.

Janis Miller, 77, of South Orange tried to impersonate her aunt in a phone conversation with a Social Security worker, federal authorities said.
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Jerry DeMarco

05/03/2024 8:36 a.m.

Janis Miller, 77, of South Orange even went as far as trying to impersonate her aunt in a phone conversation with a Social Security worker, according to the indictment returned in U.S. District Court in Newark.

However, she couldn’t come up with her aunt’s exact birthdate – just an approximation, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.

Unaware of Miller’s aunt’s death in 1998, the federal Social Security Administration (SSA) and U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) continued to send retirement and survivor benefits to the late woman’s bank account, the U.S. attorney said.

Miller raked it in using a debit card, making cash withdrawals and forging checks, Sellinger said.

She’d spent all of it by the time the funds were finally cut off – 25 years after the thefts began, he said.

Federal authorities initially charged Miller on a complaint this past December. The indictment secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Thypin-Bermeo of Sellinger’s General Crimes Unit in Newark charges her with wire fraud.

Sellinger credited special agents of the inspector general’s offices of the federal Social Security Administration and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management with the investigation leading to the charges.

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