Federal prosecutors in Albany say a Rensselaer woman spent nearly 17 years writing checks on a bank account that two government agencies kept filling after the account holder died. Kimberly Cardella, 59, is charged with taking $668,884 in total: more than $530,000 in Social Security money and more than $138,000 in New York State pension payments. The money belonged to her mother-in-law, who died in 2009, according to the indictment. These are charges only, and Cardella is presumed innocent.
What the indictment says about the checking account
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York announced the case on October 2, 2026, in a release headlined as a $668,884 Social Security and NYS pension fraud scheme. According to the indictment, the mother-in-law was both a Social Security beneficiary and a New York State pensioner. She died in 2009.
The release says neither the Social Security Administration nor the New York State and Local Retirement System had been made aware of the death. Both agencies therefore continued to fund the dead woman’s checking account. Prosecutors allege that Cardella wrote checks against that account for her personal use, signing her mother-in-law’s name for nearly 17 years after the death.
The government puts the resulting loss at more than $530,000 to the Social Security program and more than $138,000 to the New York State pension fund. Those two figures are the prosecutors’ own, and the $668,884 total appears in the U.S. Attorney’s headline for the case. Both are allegations at this stage. Nothing in the release says a court has found that any of the money was taken.
Indicted September 3, arraigned September 18
The grand jury indictment is dated September 3, 2026, and the arraignment followed on September 18, 2026. The announcement came two weeks after that hearing. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Arne Soldwedel is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General and the New York State Comptroller’s Office…