A 59-year-old immigrant from Afghanistan living in Springfield has been ordered to pay back the $111,000 he stole from the Social Security Administration.
Mohammad Husseini was also sentenced to six months in prison, court records show. He became a U.S. citizen in 1978.
In 1990, Husseini suffered a work-related injury and applied for and received Social Security disability payments, court documents said. In order to receive the cash, he had to agree to notify the Social Security Administration if he once again obtained employment.
But when he got a job working for Catholic Charities in 1999, he failed to do that. Instead, he gave the charity organization his brother’s Social Security number so that his earnings would not be reported to the government. Husseini didn’t report his change of work status until April 2006. By then he had collected $111,000 in disability payments.
“Although his conduct was unlawful, he embarked upon it, and continued it, in the belief that it was the only way he could provide for his family’s medical and financial needs,” Husseini’s attorney wrote in court documents. The attorney added that Husseini had already concluded he need to pay the funds back before he was charged with the crime. When he reported what he had done to the government, a criminal investigation was started.
For those reasons, the attorney wrote “the court should not incarcerate this defendant.” Instead, he argued Husseini should be sentenced to home confinement so he could continue to support his family. Husseini has been working for a government contractor in Fall Church where he interprets for the U.S. military, court documents said. Prosecutors sought a harsher sentence. “Though [Husseini] ultimately notified the [Social Security Administration] of his fraud,” prosecutors wrote in court documents, “it does not excuse the fact that the defendant knowingly and fraudulently accepted disability payments in excess of $111,000. It is clear that a substantial sentence is needed to deter Husseini from further criminal conduct.” The judge apparently agreed with prosecutors and sentenced him to prison on Tuesday.
