Summary: Eric Conn, a.k.a. Mr. Social Security, has disappeared.
Mr. Social Security is now Mr. Fugitive. Authorities said that attorney Eric Conn, also known as “Mr. Social Security Security,” removed his electronic device and has since disappeared.
Conn pled guilty in March to bribing a judge and stealing almost $600 million from the Social Security Administration. He was out on bond and expected to appear in court next month for sentencing.
Conn’s lawyer, Scott White, spoke to the Lexington Herald-Leader and said that he was “concerned” about his client.
“We are praying that Eric does the right thing and turns himself in because it’s not too late,” White said. “We’re also praying for law enforcement who have to do this search.”
Conn was ordered to pay back the money he had stolen from the government, but an FBI agent testified that he had heard Conn had other plans. At a hearing, the agent said one of Conn’s employees had informed him that Conn planned to flee to Cuba or Ecuador and that he had wired money out of the country.
Although prosecutors had begged the judge not to let Conn out of a jail, a U.S. Magistrate judge had allowed his release on the condition that he wear a GPS device and give up his passport, according to the New York Daily News.
Conn was a well-known social security lawyer in Kentucky and around the country, thanks to his appearances in commercials touting himself as “Mr. Social Security.” In 1993, he formed his own practice in a trailer in Stanville, Kentucky; and he grew that business into the third most lucrative disability firm in the nation, bringing in more than $20 million in fees from 2001 to 2013. He was well known for his colorful billboards and outrageous TV ads, which often featured models and bikini girls.
Conn’s practice busted when he, a doctor, and a judge were discovered to have created an intricate scheme using their knowledge and positions to fraudulently take $600 million from the federal government.
In 2013, the U.S. Senate published a 161-page report titled “How Some Legal, Medical and Judicial Professionals Abused Social Security Disability Programs for the Country’s Most Vulnerable: A Case Study of the Conn Law Firm.” In the scathing report, it detailed Conn’s relationship to Judge David Daugherty and four doctors. It accused Conn of paying doctors into signing forms that said his healthy clients were disabled. Then Judge Daugherty would allegedly rubber stamp the claims without a hearing.
The three had been charged with 18 counts of fraud and conspiracy, and in 2015, the Social Security Administration had cut off payments to hundreds of Conn’s clients who were poor coal miners in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia.
On Saturday, the U.S. District Court issued a warrant for his arrest.
- Social Security Lawyer Frauds Social Security out of $250,000
- NYPD Retirees Indicted for Disablity Fraud
Photo courtesy of Kentucky