[B]
Feds: Couple Claimed Welfare While Living in $1.2M Home[/B]
Published December 06, 2011
| Associated Press
[IMG]http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/396/223/Waterfront-Home-Welfare.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]AP
In this undated photo provided by the King County Dept. of Assessments, the $1.2 million waterfront home where prosecutors say a Seattle chiropractor and his wife lived while claiming welfare assistance is seen.
SEATTLE – A Seattle chiropractor and his wife live in a $1.2 million waterfront home and have spent the past eight years flying to Moscow, Paris, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
All the while, federal authorities say, the couple was collecting more than $100,000 in welfare.
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.
Michael Radyshewsky, a federal welfare fraud investigator, wrote in an application to search the couple's home that they took weeklong trips to Moscow in 2003, Dominican Republic in 2005, and Mexico and France in 2009. In 2007, they went for 12 days to Israel, and this past June they took a two-week trip to Turkey.
Silverstein said Tuesday his lawyer asked him not to comment, and his lawyer, David Allen, did not immediately return a message. The home did not appear to have a listed phone number, and Shimonova's lawyer, Michele Shaw, did not return an email seeking comment.
The investigation included surveillance of the three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on Lake Washington, during which agents observed his black Jaguar parked there frequently.
Though Shimonova had claimed she was single and lived there alone, Silverstein listed it as his residence on his driver's license and passport application, the prosecutors said.
But in documents filed so that he could receive the housing assistance, he listed his office as his residence to conceal that he was living with Shimonova -- not her landlord, they said.
Furthermore, it appeared clear that the pair was actually married. Silverstein wrote on the website of his chiropractic business: "On a personal note, I am happily married with two children, whose careers are in medicine and Middle Eastern studies. As a family, we all enjoy snow-shoeing, mountain climbing and ocean sports."
A report of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for the 2010 fiscal year listed "Mila and Dr. David Silverstein" as donors.
In addition to failing to disclose the marriage or living situation, Shimonova also failed to disclose bank accounts in her name containing tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.
The lawsuit seeks to have the couple pay $11,000 in fines for each false claim the couple made. The U.S. attorney's office declined to comment on whether criminal charges are forthcoming.[/QUOTE]
[URL]http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/06/feds-couple-claimed-welfare-while-living-in-12m-home/?test=latestnews[/URL]
Yeah yeah, i know, foxnews sucks, bah bah. Its from the Associated Press though.
Sadly this isn't an isolated case; people do this from time to time with food stamps too. Makes me so angry!
meanwhile, people like me (middle class) can't get welfare or whatever because my family makes too much money. Nor can i get a job, or pay for schooling.
Working as designed, huh US.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but do the poorest in America receive any welfare money at all?
And in the meanwhile, a rather wealthy couple can squeeze a hundred grand from the government? And how were they not making too much money to be allowed welfare? Or maybe they are frauds!
This why America is going to deeper shit.
What is that? Is that the sound of tax money burning?
Hey America, why not funnel our taxpayer money straight into a furnace. Sounds like a better use anyway.
Damn, the system must've be so flawed that it would be better to scrap it and start all over.
[QUOTE=Sodisna;33610170]This why America is going to deeper shit.[/QUOTE]
No, this is not the reason. Depending on the intricacies of this particular event, then it may well be fraud, but fraud in the larger social service system is negligibly minor.
That's some serious bullshit fraud. I hope they're charged to the fullest extent of the law and lose their home.
[editline]7th December 2011[/editline]
[QUOTE=Bat-shit;33610168]Correct me if I'm wrong, but do the poorest in America receive any welfare money at all?
And in the meanwhile, a rather wealthy couple can squeeze a hundred grand from the government? And how were they not making too much money to be allowed welfare? Or maybe they are frauds![/QUOTE]
Yeah, our government provides welfare for the poor, from foodstamps (basically debit cards with money on it), to WIC (vouchers that mothers can use to buy groceries for their children) and a few other programs to try and help the poor.
"Those lazy drugaddicts wasting our tax money and are to lazy to work."
That argement is trown out of the windows now aswell.
I do not understand why people complain about the United States and its shitty government yet refuse to leave the country for a better opportunity.
[QUOTE=doonbugie2;33610670]I do not understand why people complain about the United States and its shitty government yet refuse to leave the country for a better opportunity.[/QUOTE]
Not all of us have the money to leave for europe.
Canada is not much better
Fuck mexico.
Maybe Brazil, I'd have to get back to you on that one.
Some people wantto stay by their family and friends.
That's a 1.2 million dollar house in the states? That's really cheap.
-First, this is not just welfare, it's Social Security and multiple forms of assistance for other things that total up to that figure.
-Second, these people were committing massive fraud and have clearly been caught, so expect that house to be forfeited to pay all that money back, plus fines. Looks like the system is working pretty well in this case.
Really, using this as some sort of excuse for bitching about welfare is like claiming banks are bad because they give money to bank robbers. And, as a poster above stated, they clearly aren't lazy drug addicts, they are accomplished and motivated fraudsters. Who now have to pay it all back, and then some.
Fox News as a source. I'm not sure if I trust it fully.
So this proves what exactly? Bad people getting caught for their crimes? Awesome. Thanks for the info.
[QUOTE=Hobo4President;33610753]That's a 1.2 million dollar house in the states? That's really cheap.[/QUOTE]You have a very expensive definition for cheap.
[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;33611131]You have a very expensive definition for cheap.[/QUOTE]
Considering such a house in Sydney would cost considerably more I do see it as fairly cheap. Then again, our wages are generally higher so I guess it balances out a bit.
A chiropractor:
Focuses on the relationship between the body's main structures – the skeleton, the muscles and the nerves – and the patient's health. Chiropractors believe that health can be improved and preserved by making adjustments to these structures, particularly to the spinal column.
Just sayin'.
[QUOTE=XD!;33610695]Not all of us have the money to leave for europe.
Canada is not much better
Fuck mexico.
Maybe Brazil, I'd have to get back to you on that one.[/QUOTE]
Brazil isn't a very good place to live. I don't think you realize how much power the gangs there have. My girlfriends grandmother lives in an ordinary apartment complex there, and it's protected by electric fences, gates and guards 24/7. After dark it's legal to ignore red traffic lights because people get kidnapped from their cars otherwise. People carry extra pockets of cash in case they get mugged.
This is what pisses me off about welfare. I am 100% for giving it to those who need it, like disabled or injured people, or people who are working but just cant pay all their stuff. When I see people pull into where I work pull in with a new 2012 dodge charger andd then try to pay with foodstamps, which we dont accept at our store, that pisses me off. You obviously either dont need the welfare or you need to spend it on something better, like clothes for the 4 kids with dirty clothes that are too big or to small for them. Meanwhile I cant get government assisting because both my parents combined make just enough to not get assistment for college, but we dont have enough to pay by ourselves. Such is life.
[QUOTE=Gubbygub;33611239]This is what pisses me off about welfare. I am 100% for giving it to those who need it, like disabled or injured people, or people who are working but just cant pay all their stuff. When I see people pull into where I work pull in with a new 2012 dodge charger andd then try to pay with foodstamps, which we dont accept at our store, that pisses me off. You obviously either dont need the welfare or you need to spend it on something better, like clothes for the 4 kids with dirty clothes that are too big or to small for them. Meanwhile I cant get government assisting because both my parents combined make just enough to not get assistment for college, but we dont have enough to pay by ourselves. Such is life.[/QUOTE]
It wasn't "given" to them, it was blatantly and fraudulently stolen. It doesn't prove anything about the welfare system, it just proves these people are assholes.
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;33610230]Hey America, why not funnel our taxpayer money straight into a furnace. Sounds like a better use anyway.[/QUOTE]
Could at least be used for energy...
What a ugly ass house for $1.2m.
[QUOTE=XD!;33610695]Not all of us have the money to leave for europe.
Canada is not much better
Fuck mexico.
Maybe Brazil, I'd have to get back to you on that one.[/QUOTE]
It costs very little to move anywhere, 3000 dollars for the trip tops, and that's a fucking crazy exaggeration, maybe 5k to get a deposit on an apartment, from there you get a job and have a good time
[QUOTE=Clementine;33762906]It costs very little to move anywhere, 3000 dollars for the trip tops, and that's a fucking crazy exaggeration, maybe 5k to get a deposit on an apartment, from there you get a job and have a good time[/QUOTE]
After busting my ass in a taco-shop (the only place that's hired me since I started working there) and studying to get a 608 refrigeration license (which still guarantees no job around here, and even if it did I'd only get $8-10/hr. on average), and after paying off the bills/etc. during that time, I have a whopping $1300 to my name and a beat-up truck that can barely make the 250-mile trip to Albuquerque, NM without breaking down and gets 15~ MPG. Yeah, I'll just jump on that magical freight train with my handkerchief on a pole with my belongings and move to a far-away land away from all this fraudulent, shit-all-over-you-no-matter-how-hard-you-try red-blooded American horseshit.
Genius idea.
[QUOTE=XD!;33610695]Not all of us have the money to leave for europe.
Canada is not much better
Fuck mexico.
Maybe Brazil, I'd have to get back to you on that one.[/QUOTE]
What's wrong with canada
come to australia
we're not horrible like america
and we're not semi-horrible like canada
we're better than you all!
(except sweden)
hah, kidding
we beat sweden too
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