A former administrative law judge for the Social Security Administration has admitted to his role in a disability lawyer’s $550 million scam.

David Black Daugherty, 81, of Myrtle Beach, S.C., pleaded guilty to accepting and attempting to conceal more than $609,000 in bribes from Eric Christopher Conn of Pikeville, Ky., between November 2004 and April 2011. 

In exchange Daugherty, an administrative law judge at the Social Security hearing office in Huntington, W.V. (Huntington Hearing Office) for more than 20 years, informed Conn of what type of medical evidence he should submit in support of disability findings and then he awarded SSA benefits to claimants represented by Conn in more than 3,100 cases without holding hearings.

As a result of this scheme, Conn collected $7.1 million in representative fees from the SSA, while more than $550 million in lifetime benefits was obtained for claimants. Conn has previously struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors, admitting to fabricating and submitting medical documents, making payoffs and claiming fees in the conspiracy, fraud and money laundering schemes that also involved a clinical psychologist and additional Social Security chief administrative law judge.

The official charge against Daugherty, which he pled guilty to before U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky, is two counts of receiving illegal gratuities.

Sentencing is set for Aug. 25, 2017.

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