Man convicted of stealing ex-NYC mom’s pension money

A scheming son has been sentenced to eight years in prison for pocketing a year’s worth of his dead mother’s Social Security contributions, authorities said.

According to state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, Charles Alton Bump, Jr., 62, raised $53,000 intended for his mother, former Jamaican Queens resident Elizabeth Dorothy Case.

Case, a retired New York State chief accountant, had moved to Maryland 20 years earlier to live with her son.

In 2019, however, a concerned US Social Security Neighbor reported that Case, who was about 90 at the time, had not been seen for more than a year.

Bump’s scam began to crumble when “repeated attempts” by Social Security to contact Case failed and she was asked to appear in person to continue receiving her payments, DiNapoli said.

When Bump showed up instead, skeptical SSA investigators didn’t believe him that his mother – who didn’t even have a passport – was on a cruise around the world and could only be reached by email, the comptroller said.

Bump, who pleaded guilty to two counts of theft last month, was sentenced to eight years in prison, three years probation and paying compensation, the regulator said.

“Mr. “Bump’s conviction should serve as a warning to those trying to cheat the New York State pension system: we will go after those who try to steal from the system, no matter where they live,” DiNapoli said.

Abusing Social Security benefits after someone’s death is a federal crime – and we will continue to take aggressive action against those who conceal death information to defraud SSA,” Ennis said.