Former SSA employee indicted in Maryland after Social Security disability theft scheme

A former Social Security Administration employee from Baltimore has been indicted in what federal prosecutors describe as a scheme to steal Social Security disability benefits by rerouting payments meant for other people.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland announced today that a federal grand jury indicted Najee Alexander Corbett, 37, of Baltimore, in connection with a Social Security disability theft scheme.

Corbett is charged with wire fraud, mail fraud, aggravated identity theft, theft of government property, and false statements. Federal prosecutors said Corbett previously worked as an SSA customer service representative and, through his position, could access sensitive SSA databases containing benefit claimants’ personally identifiable information.

Kelly O. Hayes, U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland, announced the indictment with Michael McGill, special agent in charge of the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General’s Philadelphia Field Division.

According to the indictment, Corbett “beginning in February 2023, and continuing through April 2023,” willfully devised a scheme to defraud the SSA. Prosecutors said Corbett fraudulently obtained Supplemental Security Income benefits designated for other individuals for his and his associates’ personal use.

As part of the alleged scheme, prosecutors said Corbett targeted SSI claimants diagnosed with mental health disorders and altered claimant records in the SSA database to include bank accounts he controlled and his residential mailing address so he could receive their benefit funds.

Prosecutors also said Corbett changed the date of benefit eligibility payments for selected claimants in the database, generating back payments in the claimants’ names. Authorities said he then caused SSI benefit payments to be transmitted to bank accounts he controlled and mailed to his home.

Federal prosecutors said Corbett received $116,537.62 in SSI disability payments through the scheme and retained $71,304.62.

If convicted, prosecutors said Corbett faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud, up to 20 years for mail fraud, up to 10 years for theft of government property, up to five years for false statements, and a mandatory two years for aggravated identity theft that would run consecutive to any other sentence. Prosecutors noted that actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties and that a federal district judge determines sentencing after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.