A Florida woman has been arrested for allegedly collecting nearly $100,000 in disability payments the state of Connecticut continued paying to her former roommate’s bank account for three years after her death, officials announced Wednesday.
The discovery of the alleged theft, officials said, was the result of reforms enacted as a result of a CT Insider investigation that revealed significant gaps in how Connecticut monitors taxpayer-funded disability pension payments to prevent fraud.
Officials from the office of Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon and the Division of Criminal Justice said Wednesday Christina Richards, 41, of Fort Pierce, Florida lived with a former Connecticut state employee who was injured while working at the Southbury Training School in 1987. After that former employee died in October 2021, Richards allegedly withdrew the disability pension payments the state continued to make to her deceased roommate until November 2024, authorities said in a press release. Those payments totaled $97,671…