Federal investigators are probing whether a former Cody resident received tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits she wasn’t entitled to, according to court filings.

At issue are “Child’s Insurance Benefits,” which the Social Security Administration pays to children who have a parent who’s retired, disabled or deceased. Court records indicate the woman has been accused of collecting those benefits on behalf of two of her children after they were taken away from her and placed in protective custody.

“If substantiated, the representative payee’s actions would constitute a fraud loss of approximately $86,170” and a federal crime, Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Martin wrote in a Feb. 12 filing in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court.

A subpoena attached to the federal case indicates that the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General is seeking records from the Wyoming Department of Family Services for the fall of 2020 through last spring. Separate state court filings indicate it was in November 2020 that Casper police took the woman’s children into protective custody after finding drugs and drug paraphernalia in their home. The children apparently remained in Department of Family Services custody for some time; in the early fall of 2022, she told a judge that she wanted to “continue fighting for custody of my kids.”

Although federal rules required the woman to report changes in her circumstances, the allegation is she didn’t tell the Social Security Administration that the two children who were receiving benefits were no longer living with her, Martin’s filing indicates. He said Social Security inspectors opened their investigation in March, following a tip.

The Office of Inspector General sought the Department of Family Services’ records related to the woman and her children back in April. However, the state agency didn’t believe it could share the confidential information without a federal court order, Martin wrote. Following some lawyer-to-lawyer discussions, they “amicably agreed” to bring the matter to a federal judge, and Martin did so on Feb. 10. The filing brought the typically behind-the-scenes investigative process into the public record. 

With the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office on the same page, the federal case moved quickly: U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl approved an order enforcing the subpoena on Feb. 20. He gave the Department of Family Services 30 days to provide the requested information to investigators.

The Tribune is not naming the woman because the investigation appears to be in its early stages and no charges have been filed.