From Sandy Louey:
A 47-year-old Sacramento lawn care business owner has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison for Social Security fraud.
Kevin Eugene Rhea was sentenced Tuesday for theft of government property and making a false statement for use in determining Social Security benefits, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton also ordered Rhea to three years of supervised release and restitution of $177,477.90. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 2008, the attorney's office said.
Prosecutors said Rhea applied for and received Title II disability benefits for a back injury suffered in 1994 starting in 1996.
In 2007, the Social Security Administration mailed him a form used to determine continued eligibility for benefits. On Feb. 8, 2007, he returned the form replying "no" or "n/a" to every question asked about work or income earned from work, authorities said.
When asked to provide tax returns from 1996 to 2007, he wrote that he had none. But, all of that was false because he had owned a lawn care business called K&S Gardening Service since 1997. The business charged customers an average of $40 to $60 per month. He also had several employees, the attorney's office said.
Rhea received about $177,000 in disability insurance benefits from Sept. 1, 1997 to Jan. 31, 2008 that he wasn't entitled to, authorities said.
The case resulted from an investigation by the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General.
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