A New York City Police Officer and his wife were arrested on multiple charges for fraudulently collecting benefits and prescription drugs that were issued to the officer’s mother after her death.
The fraud totals over $300,000.
On Tuesday police arrested Edward Ian St. Hill, 52, a 16-year veteran of the NYPD assigned to the 71 Precinct, and his wife Maria Ramos, 45, of Marine Park, in Brooklyn following an investigation by the NYPD and the Internal Affairs Bureau.
CBS New York reports the defendants maintained the finances of Hill’s mother, Germain St. Hill, who passed away on June 4, 2016, as if she were alive.
The couple used Hill’s deceased mother’s identity and used it to steal Social Security and pension benefits totaling nearly $100,000, fraudulently selling her home for $260,000 and attempting to defraud another $160,000 in life insurance annuities from MetLife Insurance Company.
They also impersonated Germain St. Hill in numerous phone calls in a vast scheme to defraud multiple financial institutions and to collect prescription drugs.
Officer Hill has now been suspended without pay.
The couple was charged in a 101-count indictment with multiple counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, multiple counts of grand larceny, identity theft, forgery, money laundering, scheme to defraud, multiple counts of falsifying business records, criminal possession of a forged instrument, defrauding the government, conspiracy, falsely reporting an incident, offering a false instrument for filing, and official misconduct.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez released the following statement:
> “These defendants, a police officer and his wife, allegedly took advantage of his own mother’s death to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to which they were not entitled. This greedy and macabre conduct is even more egregious because police officers take an oath to uphold the law. We now intend to hold both defendants accountable for their alleged criminal conduct.”
