HRA Supervisor Charged With Disability Ripoff

By HOWARD MEGDAL

A Supervisor Level I with the Human Resources Administration was arrested last week and charged with defrauding the Social Security Administration Disability Benefits Program out of more than $125,000.

Burnestha Wilder, 55, held a joint account with a relative and Social Security disability beneficiary, who died in January 1996. According to Department of Investigation Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn, Ms. Wilder continued to allow payments to be deposited into the account, and often used the $125,776 in funds between January 1996 and September 2006 for personal expenses.

Not in Her Interest

"This defendant did not make deposits toward a brighter, trouble-free future," Ms. Hearn said. "Instead, she can probably bank on the fact that she will have a criminal record after she wrongly collected and spent disability benefits intended for a relative who had died."

Ms. Wilder, who had been with HRA since August 1984, was suspended from her position.

The case will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.