Defendant Pretended Grandmother Was still Alive to Continue Receiving federal WC Benefits

The U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington has sentenced a man to one year in prison and three years of supervised release for declaring that his grandmother was alive in order to receive five years' worth of workers' compensation death benefits. Morgan Michael Hopkins of Port Angeles, Washington, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft of public funds, according to a Friday statement from the U.S. Department of Justice. The man's grandmother had been receiving workers' compensation death benefits from the U.S. Department of Labor in connection with the death of ...