Woman stole dead relatives’ Social Security
Jury convicts health aide of pocketing grandparents’ cash
For years after her grandparents died, Myriam Etienne ripped off Social Security by accepting more than $130,000 worth of government benefits intended only for the living.
On Wednesday, jurors took about half an hour to find her guilty of 90 counts of stealing government money.
Etienne, a home health aide and nursing assistant, was immediately taken into custody in federal court in Fort Lauderdale and will remain jailed. She faces up to 10 years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000
when she is sentenced in April. She also must repay the stolen money
She used some of the cash to make payments on her 2015 BMW X6, pay the mortgage on her North Lauderdale home, withdraw cash from ATMs, buy airline tickets and pay for her everyday expenses.
Etienne’s grandfather, Herman Etienne, was 87 when he died in Haiti in January 2006. Her grandmother Genevieve was 90 when she died, also in Haiti, in June 2009. The couple moved to the U.S. in 1987 and returned to the Port-au-Prince area some years before they died.
Jurors openly laughed at Etienne’s testimony Tuesday when she gave them contradictory and garbled excuses for what happened.
At various times during questioning, she tried to convince the jury that she had not known her grandparents were dead but also hinted that they just might still be alive in Haiti.
“So you think they’re still alive?” prosecutor Randy Katz asked Etienne skeptically when she testified in her defense.
“I don’t know,” Etienne replied, speaking in Haitian Creole through a court interpreter. “I don’t believe they’re there either.”
At other times, she also indicated that she knew they were dead and told the jury she thought she had been legitimately receiving “survivorship” benefits for them. Etienne testified that she was not sure she recognized her signature on some documents, including forms she was required to submit each year documenting how the money was spent.
The forms falsely indicated half the money was spent on food and shelter for the dead couple and the rest on other legitimate expenses, authorities said.
Agents Dominick Stokes and Javier Montero, from the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General, testified that Etienne, who moved to the U.S. in 1987 and later became a citizen, spoke fluent English when they interviewed her.
Witnesses testified that it was clearly explained to Etienne — orally and numerous times in writing — that she could face criminal prosecution if she failed to report, within 30 days, that her grandparents had left the country or died. Etienne had taken over as the payee for their benefits in 2004 because they were elderly and sick. The payments were deposited directly into a joint bank account Etienne held with her grandparents.
The Social Security supplemental income benefits intended for her grandparents were needs-based monthly payments to people with limited income and resources who are disabled or over the age of 65. The money comes from federal taxpayers.
“You need to be in the United States and, of course, you need to be alive,” Montero told the jurors.
Investigators tracked down Haitian death certificates for both grandparents after an audit flagged their benefits as suspicious in 2016.
During the investigation, Etienne went back and forth between denying she did anything wrong and admitting she had. She began paying back the money last year at a rate of $50 per month and $1,000 from her income tax refund but was arrested on the criminal charges in October.
Senior U.S. District Judge James Cohn ordered Etienne will remain jailed while she awaits sentencing.