Find Corporate Waste

Tag: Disability

  • North Carolina Woman Charged in Immigration and VA Disability Fraud Case

    North Carolina Woman Charged in Immigration and VA Disability Fraud Case

    The DOJ announced that Britney Sherene Curry, 26, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was indicted in the Western District of Missouri for conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, false statements under oath on immigration documents, unlawfully procuring citizenship, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

    According to the DOJ, Curry is a Jamaican national who entered the United States on a six-month B-2 visa in 2015 and allegedly never left. Prosecutors claim she paid a third party to arrange a fraudulent marriage with a U.S. citizen to obtain immigration benefits. The DOJ alleges Curry and her husband first met on the day of the marriage and never lived together.

    The alleged scheme later reached federal benefit payments. After becoming a lawful permanent resident, Curry joined the U.S. Army, applied for naturalization, and later received VA disability compensation. Prosecutors allege she claimed her husband as a dependent for VA disability purposes, increasing her monthly benefit, despite allegedly never living with him and not seeing him after she enlisted.

    The case was investigated by DHS-OIG, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, USCIS, VA-OIG, and Army CID. The DOJ noted that VA disability payments passed through Treasury Payment Operations in Kansas City, Missouri.

    The indictment is only an accusation, and Curry is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

    For Find Corporate Waste, the case is another reminder that federal benefit programs depend on truthful eligibility claims. Whether the program is immigration, veterans benefits, PPP, PRF, or federal contracting, the core issue is the same: public money moves when applicants certify facts that agencies rely on. When those facts are allegedly false, taxpayer funds become recoverable exposure.

  • Colombian Woman Sentenced After Stolen Identity Scheme Tied to Voter Fraud and $404K in Benefits

    Colombian Woman Sentenced After Stolen Identity Scheme Tied to Voter Fraud and $404K in Benefits

    A Colombian woman who lived in Boston under a stolen identity for more than two decades was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison, according to the DOJ.

    Prosecutors said Lina Maria Orovio-Hernandez, 60, used the name, date of birth, and Social Security number of a U.S. citizen born in Puerto Rico to obtain Massachusetts IDs, a REAL ID, federal benefits, and to vote in the 2024 presidential election.

    The DOJ said the scheme included approximately $43,348 in SNAP benefits, $101,257 in SSI disability benefits, and $259,589 in Section 8 rental assistance. She was ordered to pay $404,194 in restitution and is subject to deportation after her sentence.

    This is not just a voter-fraud case. It is a cross-system identity-fraud case involving public benefits, housing assistance, state identification, passport screening, and election records.

    For Find Corporate Waste, the key oversight question is simple: how did one stolen identity survive repeated checks across taxpayer-funded systems for more than 20 years?

    Anyone with inside knowledge of identity-verification failures, benefit-screening gaps, or recurring document-fraud patterns in federally funded programs may hold information relevant to public-fraud enforcement.

    If you know how a similar scheme was missed, approved, repeated, or concealed, contact Find Corporate Waste. We protect confidential sources while preserving the right of eligible whistleblowers to seek compensation for reporting fraud against taxpayer-funded programs.