A disability lawyer has pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to bilk $550 million in federal disability payments from the Social Security Administration.
Eric Christopher Conn, 56, of Pikeville, Kentucky, struck a plea deal with federal prosecutors on March 24, admitting to working with a SSA administrative judge and multiple doctors to submit falsified medical reports to the agency and obtain millions in lifetime benefits claims.
Conn testified in U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky that from 2004 to 2011, he bribed former SSA administrative law judge David B. Daugherty $10,000 a month to award the lawyer's clients disability benefits based on falsified medical records.
Conn also admitted that he fabricated the medical documents and paid physicians to sign off on more than 1,700 claims, which netted more than $550 million or which he claimed $5.7 million in legal fees.
Daugherty and clinical psychologist Alfred Bradley Adkins — who signed fraudulent medical reports validating request for disability benefits — were in indicted last year along with Conn for conspiracy, fraud, false statements, money laundering and other charges.
The case had already generated bizarre headlines last year, when Social Security chief administrative law judge Charlie Paul Andrus pleaded guilty to retaliating against a whistleblower who had informed authorities about Daugherty’s role in the scheme.
Embarrassed by the investigation and a subsequent Wall Street Journal article about corruption in his SSA office, Andrus admitted to conspiring with Conn to discredit the informant by filming them violating a teleworking program with the hopes of getting the employee fired. Andrus later struck a plea deal to testify in the corruption trial.
Conn is charged one count of theft of government money and one count of payment of gratuities as part of his plea deal. Sentencing is set for July 14.
