Rio Rancho man sentenced for Social Security fraud

A Rio Rancho man was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $55,000 in restitution after being found guilty of theft of government property and other charges.

A federal jury found James Anthony Sandoval, 58, on 33 counts of the theft charge as well as one count each of making false statements and false statements on a Social Security form Dec. 16, 2022.

The federal indictment was issued June 15, 2022. Court records indicate he became eligible for disability benefits in 2007, and the Social Security Administration began issuing payments to Sandoval, including to his children, and Medicare benefits.

In November 2018, the SSA Office of the Inspector General Cooperative Disability Investigations Unit began investigating allegations that Sandoval was concealing his jewelry shop, Traditions Past and Present, as well as his earnings. The business had two “thriving” locations in Albuquerque, a release from the DOJ states.

The CDI investigation found that Sandoval opened the company in 2009 and was the designer and creator of the business’s jewelry. In August 2006, Sandoval signed various SSA forms stating he had not worked and had not received any income since January 2007.

In February 2019, an undercover agent from SSA-OIG spoke with Sandoval at the San Antonio, Texas, Stock and Rodeo Show, where he had a booth for Traditions Past and Present. He told the agent he sells customized jewelry from the Santa Fe area and had been selling custom-made jewelry at the show for about 10 years. He also said his pieces ranged in price from $500-$20,000 and that he did not sell to wholesalers.

In a Feb. 19, 2020, interview with OIG-SSA special agent and SSA employees in Rio Rancho, Sandoval told agents he had not worked since 2002 or 2003 and denied making a profit at Traditions, although he admitted to traveling to trade shows for the business.

During the jury trial, a former employee testified that Sandoval was intentionally concealing his income from the government because of the SSA disability payments he was receiving. There were also reports and photographs of Sandoval working at the business, including working at a vendor booth at the Texas trade show. The government also presented bank records from Traditions as well as Sandoval’s personal records from 2014-19 that included several transactions from the jewelry business to the personal accounts, which were all under the control of Sandoval.

The DOJ stats that from Jan. 1, 2014, to April 1, 2019, Sandoval received more than $182,000 in SSA benefits and Medicare paid more than $94,000 for services Sandoval received between March 2015 and May 2021, when he was not eligible for benefits.

Upon his release from prison, Sandoval will be subject to three years of supervised release.