SSA Employee Guilty of $1.8M Embezzlement in PR

M.A. Dworkin

San Juan, PR - The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District Puerto Rico, announced the conviction on 23 counts, by a federal jury, of Myrna Faria, a/k/a Myrna Oliveras Santiago, a former Social Security Administration (SSA) employee, of embezzling and stealing $1,812,455 in SSA funds. The funds were stolen from the Retirement Insurance Benefits, Survivors Insurance Benefits, and Auxiliary Benefits payments. 

Ms. Faria was employed by SSA as a Social Insurance Specialist and Claims Specialist from 1991 through 2019, working in the Workload Support Unit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She embezzled the funds during the period March 2012 through March 2024. 

Ms. Faria utilized her position with the SSA to submit false claims on behalf of others, using the identity of individuals she believed to be deceased. She then approved the false claims and submitted her own bank and address information to fraudulently receive the corresponding SSA beneficiary proceeds. She then proceeded to withdraw, transfer, and spend money from the accounts that fraudulently obtained the SSA funds. Over the span of ten years, Ms. Faria submitted and approved 13 fraudulent claims.

“Even after she retired, she continued to enrich herself illegally. This is embarrassing and despicable conduct by a public official, someone called to serve the people, noy take from them,” said Joseph Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI San Juan Field Office. “No one is above the law, and even if you think you can get away with it, we will find out sooner or later, and you will face the consequences.  

The SSA Office of Inspector General, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the case with assistance from the Puerto Rico Police Department. 

Ms. Faria is scheduled to be sentenced by the U.S. District Judge Gina R. Mendez-Miro on September 28, 2016. She could receive up to 35 years in federal prison for her crimes.