Wendy Jean Roberts was in need. That fact drove her to the state of Minnesota seeking public assistance where she swore, under penalty of perjury, that the assets listed in her application represented her worldly possessions. She claimed $1500 in her checking account but, it turns out, that need was not so great as she lead on. Because three and a half years later, the state discovered there was a $2 million trust fund paying out to Roberts more than $60,000 per year while also seeing the corpus grow during that period. In fact, the same month she claimed only $1500 to her name she received a almost $5000 from the trust. Over the course of the scam Roberts received about $30,000 worth of food stamps and free medial care. She is now facing felony theft charges although no trial date has yet to be set. In any event, this is going to cost Roberts much more than the $30,000 she scammed which just goes to show that some risk are not worth taking.
See Richard Chin, Maplewood woman with $2M trust fund was welfare cheat, charges say, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, April 26, 2016.
