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Seattle welfare recipient lives in million-dollar home

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/seattle-welfare-recipient-lives-million-dollar-home-161252749.html

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........Seattle welfare recipient lives in million-dollar home
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.By Eric Pfeiffer
.PostsRSS .By Eric Pfeiffer | The Sideshow – 19 hrs ago....EmailNew: Now the email button gives you a quick and easy way to start a conversation.

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A Seattle woman who is receiving welfare assistance from Washington state also happens to live in a waterfront house on Lake Washington worth more than a million dollars.

Federal agents raided the home this weekend but have not released the woman or her husband's name because they have not officially been charged with a crime.

However, federal documents obtained by KING 5 News show the couple currently receives more than $1,200 a month in public housing vouchers, plus state and government disability checks and food stamps. They have been receiving the benefits since 2003.

The 2,500 square-foot home, which includes gardens and a boat dock, is valued at $1.2 million. And even though the couple has been receiving the benefits for nearly 10 years, records show that they accurately listed the address of their current home when applying for the state and federal benefits.


A federal official told KING 5 that the couple likely took advantage of a loophole, which allows low-income individuals to receive financial assistance to help them pay their rent and move away from housing projects. However, the law does not require officials to verify what type of home the benefits recipient is living in.

As if the million dollar home weren't enough, the supposedly low-income couple also gave money to various charities and traveled around the world to locales in Turkey, Tel Aviv and resort towns in Mexico, according to court records.
 
There's something fishy about this story. Unless these people are pulling in $10K/month on welfare, which, according to what I have read, they are not, they are getting an awful lot of money through some other means... I don't suppose they found a meth lab or marijuana farm on the property when they raided it, did they?
From what I heard about this story on the news, was the husband used his work address as his home address and than the wife claimed that she was renting the house from her husband, but didn't list him as such, she listed him the person she was renting from. Than welfare issued the checks without first check to see if they were related.

This is what I posted the story for, not so much it being a welfare story, but the wafre agency not making the proper checks to be sure they were not being scammed.
 

imreallyperplexed

Council Member
I know from another thread that you have benefitted from the VA. Do you think that anyone has ever defrauded the VA? I suspect that the VA has been defrauded. I am against defrauding the VA and I want the VA to do the best job that they can to keep from being defrauded but that doesn't mean that I want to get rid of the VA. (The best way to get rid of fraud at the VA would be to close down the VA. If there is no VA, there is no one to defraud.)

I take it from what you said that you really are against the fraud and hope that more can be done to prevent it. You are not making a judgment on the "housing" program per se. I can understand why you are troubled. It troubles me too. I happen to live on Lake Washington in Seattle and I am outraged at the theives who perpetrated this crime against my state of Washington and Washington state taxpayers. However, my solution is not to criticize the program or call on the state to close the program down. But I do think that it is incumbent on the department to look into what happened and make sure that it does not happen again.

From what I heard about this story on the news, was the husband used his work address as his home address and than the wife claimed that she was renting the house from her husband, but didn't list him as such, she listed him the person she was renting from. Than welfare issued the checks without first check to see if they were related.

This is what I posted the story for, not so much it being a welfare story, but the wafre agency not making the proper checks to be sure they were not being scammed.
 
I know from another thread that you have benefitted from the VA. Do you think that anyone has ever defrauded the VA? I suspect that the VA has been defrauded. I am against defrauding the VA and I want the VA to do the best job that they can to keep from being defrauded but that doesn't mean that I want to get rid of the VA. (The best way to get rid of fraud at the VA would be to close down the VA. If there is no VA, there is no one to defraud.)

I take it from what you said that you really are against the fraud and hope that more can be done to prevent it. You are not making a judgment on the "housing" program per se. I can understand why you are troubled. It troubles me too. I happen to live on Lake Washington in Seattle and I am outraged at the theives who perpetrated this crime against my state of Washington and Washington state taxpayers. However, my solution is not to criticize the program or call on the state to close the program down. But I do think that it is incumbent on the department to look into what happened and make sure that it does not happen again.
Did I elude to closing down the housing program? If you look at the post above mine all I basically said is that I wanted the housing program to monitor the people that they give the grants to closer than they are now doing.

The VA has nothing to do with this thread and the VA does a really good job at monitoring the current and former military folks that are granted services. My ailments are service connected as are all in the VA system are. Are you suggesting that the government doesn't owe something to those folks that are injured in the line of duty?
 
He's a chiropractor, don't know what she does. They pretend they are not married, that he is her landlord...lies and more lies. This particular fraud began in 2003 and they're trying to blame it on Obama who is getting this kind of thing cleaned up.

Couple claiming welfare benefits since 2003
This is what I'm talking about. Although I do not like Obama, he is not the blame for this. This is on the heads of the adminstrators of the Washington state welfare agency. The article also stated the reason that they are paying such rents for people is because they are trying to get the people out of public housing and into the community. Why, public housing was built for thoise people who could not afford the going rent rates.
 

imreallyperplexed

Council Member
Not at all. I think that we basically agree. My point was that all government agencies that provide services are subject to fraudulent claims and unfortunately, a few fraudulent claims are not caught ahead of time. (Hopefully, these fraudulent claims will - like the one in Seattle - be caught at some point and prosecuted.) I think that the VA is as subject to this problem as the housing agency. That as the basic point. I definitely think that the VA is vital for all the reasons that you listed. But I think that the housing agency provides important services as well. It sounds like you agree.

Finally, insurance companies in the private sector worry about fraudulent claims as well. That is one reason that filing claims can be so bureaucratic. However, insurance companies have the option of charging the administrative overhead costs involved with guarding against fraud to their customers. Public agencies have a harder sell when it comes to detecting fraud because some taxpayers expect perfect fraud detection at no expense to the taxpayer. But it costs money to do fraud detection. You can't just wish it better. That was my point. Hope it makes sense.


Did I elude to closing down the housing program? If you look at the post above mine all I basically said is that I wanted the housing program to monitor the people that they give the grants to closer than they are now doing.

The VA has nothing to do with this thread and the VA does a really good job at monitoring the current and former military folks that are granted services. My ailments are service connected as are all in the VA system are. Are you suggesting that the government doesn't owe something to those folks that are injured in the line of duty?
 

imreallyperplexed

Council Member
Ridge Runner,

I would have to check this but - as I noted I live in Seattle - I think that the basic idea was that "poorer" folks will do better in mixed communities than in communities where everyone was on public assistance. It is a way to wean people who need housing assistance off assistance. (Newt Gingrich might approve!) In other words, it was a response to complaints about the downsides of public housing - increased dependence. From what I understand, subsidizing rents was no more expensive than building and maintaining subsidized housing. In fact, I suspect that it was cheaper. So that was an advantage as well. But obviously (to me anyway), it is more complicated to administer this sort of rent-support system and the rent support system is probably more subject to fraudulent claims. Not only that, the state of Washington has been cutting costs right and left over the last three years and it is easy to cut out monitoring personnel. That is the way that stiff budget cuts work sometimes.

This is what I'm talking about. Although I do not like Obama, he is not the blame for this. This is on the heads of the adminstrators of the Washington state welfare agency. The article also stated the reason that they are paying such rents for people is because they are trying to get the people out of public housing and into the community. Why, public housing was built for thoise people who could not afford the going rent rates.
 
Not at all. I think that we basically agree. My point was that all government agencies that provide services are subject to fraudulent claims and unfortunately, a few fraudulent claims are not caught ahead of time. (Hopefully, these fraudulent claims will - like the one in Seattle - be caught at some point and prosecuted.) I think that the VA is as subject to this problem as the housing agency. That as the basic point. I definitely think that the VA is vital for all the reasons that you listed. But I think that the housing agency provides important services as well. It sounds like you agree.

Finally, insurance companies in the private sector worry about fraudulent claims as well. That is one reason that filing claims can be so bureaucratic. However, insurance companies have the option of charging the administrative overhead costs involved with guarding against fraud to their customers. Public agencies have a harder sell when it comes to detecting fraud because some taxpayers expect perfect fraud detection at no expense to the taxpayer. But it costs money to do fraud detection. You can't just wish it better. That was my point. Hope it makes sense.
I agree, it appears that we are on the same page when it comes to fraud in government services.
 
Sounds like they are busting these fraudsters. How about Ken Lay's widow walking away with $12.5 million after he looted billions of dollars in people's retirements and ran up the energy bills for the people of California? He was hardly alone in profiting far more than this couple from corporate criminal activities. http://www.chron.com/business/enron/article/Lay-s-widow-says-assets-are-hers-1832024.php
You know what I find rather impossible to believe? Lay walked away with 99 million dollars in fraudulent funds and the government can only trace 1.5 Million of it. What in the world happened to the rest of it?
 

gabriel

Governor
oh as a good conservative businessman, im sure he donated it to a worthy charity. he likes to set an example for muddle headed americans who think the unfortunates need a social safety net!
 

888888

Council Member
Gotta love the epilogue..."Life is full of choices"....

ai244.photobucket.com_albums_gg10_StayinArrive_receipt.jpg
You can almost see that they ran out of Lobster packs on sale, and had to get that guy who sent them into the store two steaks to fill out the order. How much did you have to pay them for the food anyway BOCA, 75.00? another reason there should be more govt oversite, right?
 

Friday13

Governor
Here's more detail...

Now, the U.S. attorney's office is suing David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova, accusing them of filing false claims and demanding that the couple pay back more than $135,000 in federal housing assistance since 2003. Prosecutors are also seeking tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

In gaining Section 8 housing assistance, Shimonova represented that she lived alone with her two children and that her household assets were less than $5,000. Silverstein received the monthly benefits of $1,272 as Shimonova's purported landlord, the government said.

Shimonova also received benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, as well as Social Security cash reserved for people who can't work due to age or disability and whose assets fall below a certain threshold — $3,000 for a married couple or $2,000 for a single person, the complaint said.

"Defendants have separately and, it appears, in conjunction with one another made false representations to various state and federal agencies in order to obtain federally funded benefits," assistant U.S. attorneys Harold Malkin and Kayla Stahman wrote.

Meanwhile, they were traveling the world, according to Department of Homeland Security records.

Couple claimed welfare lived in $1.2M home
 

Friday13

Governor
Hey...they "saved" $8.

6 lobsters, 2 steaks and 5 24 packs of diet Mountain Dew...what kind of diet is that?
 
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