A 48-year-old Pompano Beach woman has been convicted of stealing more than $152,000 in Social Security retirement benefits that were meant for her deceased great-aunt, siphoning the money through hundreds of ATM withdrawals over nearly six years. Asha Anderson was found guilty following a six-day trial on charges of theft of government funds and Social Security fraud.
According to the NBC 6 South Florida report on the verdict, prosecutors said the Social Security Administration kept depositing the great-aunt's monthly benefits into Anderson's bank account after her death, and Anderson repeatedly accessed the account to withdraw the funds. The case is filed under docket number 25-cr-60312 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, stemming from an investigation by the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General's Atlanta Field Division under Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Jermaine Jack, according to BocaNewsNow.com.
Hundreds of Withdrawals Across Two Cities
Court records released by the U.S. Department of Justice show the agency continued direct-depositing monthly benefits because it was unaware the beneficiary had died, which allowed Anderson to make hundreds of ATM cash withdrawals across Pompano Beach and Coconut Creek between April 2017 and December 2022. That stretch of unauthorized access spanned nearly six years before the scheme was uncovered.
Anderson now faces up to 10 years in federal prison for theft of government funds and up to five years for Social Security fraud. Statutory penalties for those federal felony counts — theft of government property under 18 U.S.C. § 641 and Social Security fraud under 42 U.S.C. § 408 — also allow judges to impose criminal fines of up to $250,000 per count along with mandatory restitution, on top of any prison term, per guidance previously issued by the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General.
Officials Vow Continued Crackdown
Jason A. Reding Quiñones said Social Security supports people lawfully entitled to benefits and that those who steal from the programs will be investigated, prosecuted, and held accountable. Social Security fraud investigations in South Florida are handled by the SSA OIG's Atlanta Field Division, which oversees federal benefit fraud operations across seven southeastern states and works with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida in Fort Lauderdale and Miami, the Justice Department noted.
Anderson's conviction fits a pattern of recent federal prosecutions in Broward County targeting people accused of pocketing a deceased relative's Social Security payments. In a similar case, Pompano Beach resident Myriam Etienne was convicted after a federal trial and sentenced in April 2018 to 41 months in prison for stealing more than $130,000 in benefits sent to her deceased grandparents, according to the Justice Department. In March 2023, the Southern District of Florida sentenced Lauderdale Lakes resident Terri Lynn Hankerson to federal prison and home confinement after a jury convicted her of stealing nearly $50,000 in benefits deposited into her deceased father's account over four years.
A Decades-Old Pattern in Broward County
The problem is not new to North Broward County. Federal court records from Fort Lauderdale show that Deerfield Beach resident Claudia Carpenter pleaded guilty in September 2015 to stealing $239,089 in Social Security benefits issued to her deceased mother over a 30-year period, using joint checking direct deposits and ATM cash withdrawals, according to the Justice Department's records from that case.
Nationally, 42 U.S.C. § 408 was the lead charge in 12% of white-collar filings in U.S. Magistrate Courts in March 2025, according to monthly federal court monitoring data compiled by TRAC in March 2025. The persistence of these cases traces back to a systemic gap in how death records reach the Social Security Administration. A March 2025 audit by the agency's Office of the Inspector General found that discrepancies and rejected entries in state death reporting led to an estimated $327 million in improper benefit payments nationwide between November 2018 and October 2022.
Once such overpayments are identified, Social Security Administration policy directives updated through August 2026 require the agency to initiate administrative recovery actions, withhold underpayments, and pursue full financial recovery from improperly paid individuals or contingent estate beneficiaries. Anderson's sentencing date and presiding judge were not specified in available court records, and it remains unclear whether prosecutors will pursue the maximum statutory fines or additional restitution beyond the prison terms she already faces.
