
DATE: Friday, June 27, 1997                 TAG: 9706270682

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   85 lines

MAN CASHED DEAD BROTHER'S SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS - FOR 31 YEARS

For 31 years, a retired shipyard mechanic cashed his dead brother's Social Security checks. Now the government wants its money back - plus a $1 million civil penalty.

The government is unlikely to get even a fraction of that. The retiree, Arthur Sheriff, is now 89 years old, suffers severely from Alzheimer's disease and lives in a small house near Norview High School.

The federal government sued Sheriff, who lives in Norfolk's Coronado neighborhood, earlier this month. He is accused of cashing $120,085 worth of Social Security checks from 1964 to 1995.

All the checks were written to Sheriff's brother, James White of

Norfolk, who died in 1964. The checks averaged $323 a month, but were more than $500 a month in later years.

Sheriff has not been charged criminally. He is accused only in the civil lawsuit.

``It is a very unusual situation,'' Social Security spokeswoman Mary Mahler said. ``It's certainly one of the longest ones I've ever heard of.''

Sheriff's daughter, Earline Allen of Boston, acknowledged this week that her father cashed the checks, but said she had no idea why. She said she found out about it only after it ended.

``I don't understand it myself,'' Allen said. ``I don't know what he did with the money.''

Arthur Sheriff could not comment on the accusations. He did not appear to understand the lawsuit.

The Social Security Administration found out about the fraud during a routine check. In recent years, the agency began face-to-face visits with all recipients who are 100 years old, to make sure they are still alive.

In this case, James White would have turned 100 in 1994. The agency discovered he was dead when it tried to visit him.

It is not known why Social Security kept issuing checks to White for 31 years after he died, but several things could explain it, said agency spokesman Dana Edwards.

In 1964, when White died, Social Security did not have a systematic way of knowing when someone died, as it does now with computerized records. Instead, the agency relied on funeral homes and families to inform them. Apparently no one told the agency of White's death.

It is not known whether this is the longest-running Social Security fraud case in Hampton Roads. ``I would have to say they are rare,'' said Mahler, the Social Security spokeswoman.

The lawsuit lays out some details, and Sheriff's daughter explained others.

It began in 1964 when James White entered a Norfolk nursing home. At that time, White gave his brother, Arthur Sheriff, power of attorney to conduct his affairs while he was sick, Allen said.

White died, but his brother apparently did not tell Social Security. ``The checks just kept coming in. . . . He thought they were his to cash,'' Allen said.

Sheriff continued cashing the checks until October 1995. He is a retired mechanic from Norfolk Naval Shipyard and a former deacon at First Baptist Church of Bute Street.

By law, the government can go back only 10 years in trying to recover the payments. For Sheriff, that means going back to 1987. The government says Sheriff cashed $52,152 worth of checks from 1987 to 1995. The lawsuit seeks triple that amount - $156,456 - in compensation under the federal False Claims Act.

The government also seeks the maximum civil penalty of $10,000 for each of the 100 checks that Sheriff fraudulently cashed from 1987 to 1995. That amounts to $1 million.

``We want everyone to know we are aggressively pursuing these kinds of cases,'' said Edwards, the agency's regional spokesman. ``You're going to see some more of these kinds of cases in court.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

How this happened

1960s

When James White died, Social Security did not have a system to keep

track of recipients' deaths. It relied on family members to inform

them. Arthur Sheriff, White's brother, apparently never told the

agency.

Recently: Social Security began checking on recipients who were more

than 100 years old. On a routine visit, officials learned White was

dead.

For Sheriff: White's brother, who has Alzheimer's, is accused of

cashing $120,085 in checks, and the government wants the money back

- plus a $1 million civil penalty. KEYWORDS: SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK FRAUD