Florida Woman Convicted of Taking $152,000 in Social Security Paid to Her Dead Great-Aunt

A Pompano Beach, Florida, woman has been convicted by a federal jury of taking more than $152,000 over nearly six years in Social Security retirement benefits that kept arriving in her late great-aunt’s bank account.

Asha Anderson, 48, was found guilty of theft of government funds and Social Security fraud after a six-day trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced on Oct. 20, 2026.

Deposits that never stopped

Anderson’s great-aunt received her Social Security benefits by direct deposit, according to court records and trial evidence described by the office. After she died, the Social Security Administration did not know about the death and kept depositing monthly payments into her account.

Between April 2017 and December 2022, Anderson repeatedly accessed that account and withdrew more than $152,000 she was not entitled to, prosecutors said. She made hundreds of cash withdrawals from ATMs, mostly in Pompano Beach and Coconut Creek.

The release does not say how the Social Security Administration eventually learned of the death or what tipped off investigators.

How deaths usually get reported

“A funeral home will usually tell us when someone dies,” the Social Security Administration says on its survivor benefits page. The release does not say whether a death report was made in this case.

“For nearly six years, Asha Anderson stole more than $152,000 in benefits intended for her deceased great-aunt,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said.

What happens next

Anderson faces up to 10 years in prison for theft of government funds and up to five years for Social Security fraud. A federal judge will set her sentence, prosecutors said; the release does not give a sentencing date. The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General investigated. The case number is 25-cr-60312.