Social Security Worker Sentenced For Stealing $732K In Benefits

AURORA, IL — A former employee at the Social Security office in Aurora was sentenced last week to serve four years in federal prison for pocketing nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in fraudulent benefits.

Anne Aroste, 42, of Montgomery, worked as a Social Security claims specialist in Aurora, where she processed applications for benefits, federal prosecutors said in a news release.

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Between 2013 and 2018, Aroste used earnings records of dead people to apply for benefits, then approved those applications with her employee credentials, prosecutors said.

Aroste pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors said she used the $732,382 she stole to make payments on car loans, credit cards and her mortgage.

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She also used the fraudulent Social Security benefits to buy a 2015 Mercedes-Benz SUV, as well as groceries, clothes, jewelry and cosmetics, prosecutors said.

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