Federal prosecutors in Arizona have charged Ruffin Alford III, 48, of Tucson, with keeping $104,013 in Social Security benefits that were paid into his deceased mother’s bank account between October 2020 and August 2025. A federal grand jury in Tucson returned the indictment in early September, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona announced it on September 16. The charge is Theft of Government Money.
The office says Alford was scheduled to appear in federal court on September 25 in Case No. 26-CR-04592-TUC-RCC. A conviction on the charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Like every defendant in these releases, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Corey Marasco and Mary Sue Feldmeier are prosecuting the case…