Local News

Colorado federal employee accused of creating fake children to receive dead relatives' benefits

By Logan Smith

December 18, 2022 / 12:45 PM MST / CBS Colorado

Justin Skiff, a Social Security Administration employee, is accused of creating 10 fake identities of children to claim "surviving child" benefits of real people who passed away.

The 36-year-old Castle Pines resident appeared in federal court in Denver on Thursday. He faces charges of wire fraud, social security frand, and money laundering.

Skiff's actions led to the theft of approximately $310,601.44 from the Social Security Administration, according to a press release released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Colorado.

Case documents allege Skiff's thefts began in August of 2019 when, as an SSA employee, he processed the claims of Sloan Murphy and Jian Yang, two children who names and identities he made up and portrayed as children of "C.B.," an actual deceased person.

Skiff received an initial $3,600 in back pay and more than $1,800 in monthly benefits thereafter on behalf of each child. The funds were sent to a bank account which Skiff controlled and drew funds from for personal use.

Skiff repeated the same actions - making up two children's names of an actual deceased adult - in February 2020, July 2020, October 2020, and April 2021. The monthly payments increased incremently. Skiff was receiving $2,100 and $2,200 a month for the two fictitious children in the April 2021 claims.

The case documents do not explain if the deceased adults were from Colorado, when they died, or if they truly had children.

Investigators claim Skiff also fraudulently received $13,600 from the Internal Revenue Service in the form of economic stimulus payments through the course of his misrepresentation.

Skiff, according to privately run website that tracks the salaries of federal employees, was hired by the SSA in 2018 and employed at an office in Littleton. The site claims his annual salary was more than $75,000.

Federal prosecutors filed the case Dec. 12. Skiff was written a summons and, after agreeing to supervised probation and surrendering his passport, is free on a $1,000 bond. He faces, if convicted, up to 20 years in prison for each of the wire fraud and money laundering counts.

Logan Smith

Logan Smith is an assignment desk editor at CBS Colorado in Denver with more than 30 years of journalism experience in digital, television and print media.