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Description: Columbia, South Carolina criminal lawyer represented Defendant charged with theft of Government Funds totaling over $258,000.00.

Evidence presented to the Court showed Crystal Deveaux, age 61, of Eastover, South Carolina, unlawfully obtained Social Security Retirement Insurance Benefits (RIB) on behalf of her deceased grandmother, which she used for her own personal benefit from June 2001 through December 2020. While acting as a representative for her deceased grandmother, Deveaux failed to notify the Social Security Administration of the death and continued to cash and deposit the RIB checks she received on her grandmother’s behalf. Additionally, Deveaux caused the Social Security Administration to pay an additional $22,840.10 in Medicare premiums on behalf of the deceased grandmother. Further, Deveaux was a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient herself and was wrongly paid $22,875.00 as she had unreported income; and she failed to report her husband’s Veteran’s Administration (VA) benefits, causing her to be paid another $23,751.42 by the Social Security Administration.


The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration-Office of Inspector General, and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney T. DeWayne Pearson.

18:641 PUBLIC MONEY, PROPERTY OR RECORDS with forfeiture allegations

Outcome: The defendant is hereby committed to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a term of Fifteen (15) months. Upon release from imprisonment, the defendant shall be on supervised release for a term of Three (3) years. The defendant must comply with the standard and mandatory conditions of release as well as additional conditions. Restitution in the amount of $258,772.52 and special assessment in the amount of $100.00 are due immediately.

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Defendant's Experts:

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