CONTROVERSIAL SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY ATTORNEY ERIC C. CONN ARRESTED ON FEDERAL INDICTMENTS; BEING HELD IN CUSTODY FOR U.S MARSHALS
Controversial Social Security Insurance disability attorney Eric C. Conn who has faced accusations of colluding with a judge to rig Social Security cases, and whose cases were frozen by the Social Security Administration, has been arrested by the FBI, on a hold indictment from the FBI, where he was booked at 7:12 p.m. Monday evening.
He was in custody Monday night in the Pike County Detention Center, where he is being held without bond, being held for U.S. Marshals, the jail reports.
Federal agents arrested Conn, 55, at his office in Stanville, Kentucky around 6:30 p.m. Monday and took him to the jail, federal law enforcement sources said.
The charges against Conn are conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, destruction of records in a federal investigation, false statements, transactional money laundering, and conspiracy to structure currency transactions.
Conn is well-known in the region as “Mr. Social Security.”
Conn has been under scrutiny for several years and has denied any wrongdoing.
Conn had been previously accused of improper practice involving his law firm.
U.S. Congressional investigators suspect Conn used fraudulent information to secure the benefits.
In October 2013, he was the focus of a U.S. Senate investigation. The investigation alleged that Conn wrote medical reports and paid physicians to approve them without conducting a physical exam of the patients. Judge David B. Daugherty was also accused of approving Conn’s cases for Social Security disability payouts without scrutiny.
Early in 2015, the disability benefits of over 900 eastern Kentucky residents represented by Conn were frozen pending a review by the Social Security Administration.
The Social Security Administration later on in 2015 ordered about another 1,500 of Conn’s former clients to attend hearings to determine whether they should continue receiving disability checks.
Among those represented by Eric Conn included a small number of clients from Lawrence County.
The SSA agency reversed its decision on the benefits freeze at the urging of U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, but those people will be required to re-prove their disability claims.
Last fall, a federal judge had dismissed most, but not all, claims in a lawsuit that accuses Conn of colluding with former Administrative Law Judge David Daugherty to rig Social Security cases throughout much of the region.
Two wrongful death lawsuits were filed against Conn after former clients committed suicide when their benefits were cut off.
KENTUCKY.COM REPORTS TUESDAY MORNING
In an indictment unsealed Tuesday, a federal grand jury found evidence that Conn conspired from 2004 to 2012 with a psychologist, Dr. Alfred Bradley Adkins, and a Social Security Administration administrative law judge, David B. Daugherty. The charges include mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, making false statements and money laundering.
The charges carry criminal penalties of up to 20 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. The government also seeks more than $5 million in forfeited assets from the defendants.
The men are scheduled to make their initial appearance at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Lexington. Conn and Adkins were arrested late Monday and jailed in Pike County. Daugherty, originally a disability benefits judge in Huntington, W.Va., now lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C., according to court records.
The indictment also lists three unnamed “unindicted co-conspirators,” including two other doctors Conn used and one of Conn’s former office managers.
