Woman pleads guilty to a quarter-century of Social Security fraud
By Mike Bunge
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MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (KIMT) — An Austin woman has pleaded guilty to cheating the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in Social Security payments.
Mavious Redmond, 54, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis to theft of government funds.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the State of Minnesota says Redmond devised and carried out a 25-year scheme to collect her deceased mother’s retirement benefits. Redmond’s mother died in January 1999 and federal prosecutors say Redmond impersonated her deceased mother on multiple occasions to keep her fraud scheme going.
For example, investigators say Redmond personally visited the SSA office on June 4, 2024, posing as her deceased mother, and submitted a fraudulent SS-5 Application for Social Security using her mother’s name, date of birth, social security number, and forging her deceased mother’s signature. Redmond reportedly visited the SSA office a second time on June 20, 2024, to resubmit her deceased mother’s documentation and the form with the forged signature.
Law enforcement says between January 1999 and June 2024, Redmond collected more than $360,000 in Social Security payments intended for her mother.
“We are awash in federal programs fraud,” says Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick. “Redmond stole well more than a quarter million dollars in taxpayer funds. She scammed social security for literal decades. No more. My office will continue to aggressively pursue the federal programs fraud that plagues Minnesota.”
No sentencing date for Redmond has been set.
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