Fab Shop Worker Sentenced in Workers Comp Fraud
FLORENCE, S.C. — A worker in Myrtle Beach, S.C.-area granite shops during the past 12 years played a dubious moonlighting game with the U.S. government … and lost.
Emmanuel Papas, 52, of Myrtle Beach pled guilty recently in federal court in a long-term scheme to claim workers comp disability benefits while earning additional income.
United States District Judge Sherri A. Lydon sentenced Papas to one year and one day of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Papas, a former Transportation Security Agency (TSA) worker, used various methods to shield his fab-shop income from detection to keep receiving workers-comp benefits, according to the federal Department of Justice.
Papas, a lead transportation security officer was injured on the job in 2004 at the Newark International Liberty Airport, according to case evidence. Due to these injuries, Papas began receiving federal worker’s compensation benefits.
A subsequent investigation by TSA invesigators revealed that Papas improperly received benefits by actively working at granite shops in the Myrtle Beach area from March 2009 through February 2020. Surveillance showed Papas working, and interviews with various granite business employees confirmed that he worked at three Myrtle Beach-area retail granite shops
Deposits into Papas’s bank account showed income from Myrtle Beach-area granite businesses. The investigation also revealed that Papas disguised his income by having his earnings either paid in cash or with checks made payable in his family members’ names.
Papas, who ultimately confessed, also completed at least eight federal forms attesting that he had no outside income and was, thus, eligible to continue to receive his benefits. The total loss to the federal government was just under $150,000.
In addition to prison and parole, Papas will owe restitution of $148,982.42.
“Federal employees should always respect the trust given to them, be it as a current or former employee,” said Acting United States Attorney M. Rhett DeHart. “Betraying that trust and stealing from the federal government never pays.”
Assistant United States Attorney Derek A. Shoemake prosecuted the case.
