Teaneck Woman Assumes Dead Brother's ID To Get $20G In Social Security, Authorities Charge

A home health care worker from Teaneck assumed her dead brother’s identity to collect more than $20,000 in Social Security disability money, authorities charged.

Wanda Lynn Sermon
Photo Credit: *BERGEN COUNTY PROSECUTOR*

Jerry DeMarco

12/01/2021 9:47 a.m.

Wanda Lynn Sermon, 55, “failed to notify the Social Security Administration of her brother’s death and instead assumed control of his bank account,” Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said Wednesday.

For the next 16 months, Musella said, Sermon “continued to access Social Security disability benefit funds intended for [him],” pocketing $20,438 in the process.

Detectives from his Financial Crimes Unit began investigating this summer after being alerted by the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General’s Office of Investigations New Jersey Field Division, the prosecutor said.

The investigators charged Sermon with theft by deception and released her pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.

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