Jul 14, 2008 9:48 pm US/Mountain
Exposed: Man Collected Dead Relative's Benefits
Written by investigative reporter Brian Maass
DENVER (CBS4) ―
A 45-year-old African immigrant is in jail after scamming Colorado's welfare system for nearly $50,000.
Gbone Garyeazon, a native of Liberia, has admitted to collecting welfare benefits intended for his mother-in-law for a full six years after she died. A Denver district court judge last month sentenced him to 90 days in jail, 3 years of probation and ordered him to reimburse Colorado for all the money he illegally obtained -- plus interest. Garyeazon was convicted of felony theft.
According to Garyeazon's confession and court documents, his mother-in-law, Daisy Blaye, began receiving assistance from Denver Human Services in June 2000. In September 2000, Blaye died, but Garyeazon continued to provide applications and rent receipts to Denver Human Services for another six years, and he continued to receive the benefits for his mother-in-law.
Garyeazon said he used the money to support his children both here, and in Africa.
So why did it take Colorado welfare authorities six years to discover the scam?
"I think it's a lot less likely today," said Charissa Hammer of the Colorado Department of Human Services.
Hammer, the Audit Division Director, explained that new, more stringent checks and controls to prevent this sort of fraud were not put in place until 2006, which is when Garyeazon's scheme was uncovered. She said that's when the state began more carefully cross-referencing lists of welfare recipients to lists of people who had died.
"That's exactly how we detected this particular case," said Hammer. "We've done a lot of work on implementing internal controls; we've got reports and processes in place to detect this kind of activity."
Hammer also explained that Garyeazon was able to scam the system for year after year because he had power of attorney and was authorized to act on behalf of his mother in law.
"We really worked hard to implement any number of controls to make sure we don't have this type of activity," she said.
Garyeazon has promised to pay back all that he took. He declined CBS4 requests for an interview.
(© MMVIII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
