Renton man sentenced to prison for cashing dead father’s Social Security payments

Published 4:43 pm Thursday, October 9, 2014

A 67-year-old Renton, Washington man who illegally collected his father’s Social Security benefit checks for 17 years after his father’s death was sentenced today to a year in prison, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes.

Patrick M. Derrick pleaded guilty to theft of public funds in May 2014, admitting that for 17 years following his father’s death he continued to collect and spend the Social Security payments that were wrongly deposited in his father’s bank account.

In order to execute the fraud, Derrick repeatedly forged his father’s signature on bank documents.

At sentencing U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez noted that Social Security funds are public money set aside for the needy and disabled.  Derrick “stole from the most vulnerable who need these benefits to survive,” Judge Martinez said.

According to records filed in the case, Derrick’s father died in November 1996 but Derrick never informed the Social Security Administration (SSA) of his father’s death. Monthly benefits continued to be paid into the father’s bank account, and Derrick would withdraw the money by writing a check to himself and forging his father’s signature.

In all, Derrick stole 201 monthly Social Security payments totaling $219,032.

In September 2013, SSA learned of the father’s death. When interviewed by federal agents, Derrick initially denied knowing about the payments to his father’s account and denied taking the money.

Derrick had a 21-year military career, followed by a 17-year career with Boeing. Prosecutors argued that this was not a case where the defendant was living on the margins and needed the extra money to survive.

Addressing the court, Derrick said he started taking the money to “make ends meet” between his military and Boeing careers, and never seemed to be able to catch up with the bills. He admitted using the money to pay college tuition for his daughter and to make donations to his church. He said it is a relief that the “wait for the knock on the door is over.”

The Western District of Washington is a national leader in pursuing fraud on Social Security benefit programs.

Eight other defendants have been charged over the last 18 months with theft of government funds for fraudulently collecting Social Security benefits for years after their parents’ death.  As a result of the prosecutions, courts in this district have ordered in excess of $1 million in restitution to the United States.