A 54-year-old Austin woman has been sentenced in federal court for stealing more than $360,000 in Social Security benefits over a 25-year period by posing as her dead mother.
Mavious Redmond was sentenced to a year and a day in prison and one year of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson announced Thursday.
“Redmond’s scheme was brazen and shameless,” Thompson said in a press release. “For 25 years, she posed as her dead mother to steal more than $360,000 in Social Security benefits. This wasn’t free money. It was taxpayer money, stolen from a program built on the hard work of Minnesotans who paid in every paycheck. Cases like this are part of the broader fraud crisis gripping our state, where too many see taxpayer programs as their own personal piggy banks. We will not let it stand.”
Posing as her mother for decades
As Alpha News previously reported, Redmond began the scheme in 1999 after her mother’s death. Instead of notifying the Social Security Administration (SSA) that benefits should be terminated, she used her mother’s identity to keep the payments flowing.
Redmond impersonated her mother repeatedly, forging her signature, using her personal information on official forms, and even appearing in person at SSA offices while claiming to be her. She altered addresses to match her own moves and maintained the deception for more than two decades.
On June 4, 2024, Redmond personally visited an SSA office while pretending to be her mother and submitted a fraudulent application using her mother’s Social Security number and forged signature.
Her scheme also misled the Internal Revenue Service, which issued $3,200 in COVID-19 stimulus payments to her mother’s bank account. Redmond accessed the funds for her own use.
Judge cites ‘longtime’ fraud
U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel noted aggravating factors when handing down the sentence, including that Redmond carried out the scheme for “such a long time” and went so far as to impersonate her deceased mother over the phone and in person before multiple federal agencies.
The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General and the IRS. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew D. Evans prosecuted the case.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
