Eric Conn, aka Mr. Social Security, was captured while coming out of a restaurant in a Honduras shopping center by a Honduran SWAT team. He is scheduled to be returned to the US on December 5.
Eric Conn was nicknamed Mr. Social Security because he handled over 3100 social security disability cases with a federal judge and doctor on his payroll. This allowed Conn to fraudulently get approved over $550 million in questionable social security disability benefits. His former clients now are fighting to get their social security benefits reinstated once the fraud was discovered with at least 2 committing suicide. Conn preyed on some of the poorest people in Kentucky and West Virginia.
In March of 2017, Conn pleaded guilty and was placed under house arrest for social security fraud. Prior to his sentencing hearing, on June 2nd, his ankle bracelet was found by a road in Kentucky. He had disappeared but was briefly spotted at a gas station and Walmart in New Mexico in July. His abandoned truck supplied by an accomplice was later found in New Mexico near the US-Mexico border.
Mr. Conn continued contact with a local Kentucky newspaper and his lawyer while on the run. He complained about the short sentences that his co-conspirators received and the mug shots that were posted of him. Conn stated that he had fled to a country without an extrication treaty.
In absentia, US District Judge Danny C Reeves sentenced Conn to 12 years in prison and was ordered to pay a $170 Million in restitution. Previously according his attorney if Conn were ever captured he would likely get life in prison. Hopefully when he gets back to the USA he will have more restraints then just an ankle bracelet this time.