Police and Social Security agents are on the lookout for Johnnie Williams and Debora Verser. Officials believe the pair embezzled thousands of dollars from clients while operating as the African American Relations Reform Coalition.
State Department of Commerce officials told the Lansing State Journal in a story published yesterday that they never licensed the coalition as a nonprofit organization, which is the status required by federal law for all outside agencies to handle Social Security payments.
Williams, who was in charge of keeping accounts for former alcoholics, was jailed in December 1994, when he was convicted of impaired driving - a notch below drunken driving.
The newspaper was unable to contact Williams and Verser for comment.
Their office was closed last month and neither Social Security agents nor police have located them.
While the police investigation continues, one Lansing man who relied on Williams and Verser to funnel his Social Security benefits to his landlord is about to feel the effects of the alleged theft.
John Crump has to find a new place to live by today. The African American Relations Reform Coalition failed to pay his July rent, causing his landlord to evict him.
"I've been looking around, trying to find a new place to live," Crump told the newspaper. He said local Social Security agents who appointed the coalition to handle his money told him there was nothing they could do for him until the investigation is completed."They just told me to wait and see what happens. They're trying to locate the thief," Crump said.
Lansing police predicted that the investigation will take some time. Lansing police Detective David Castelein said federal Social Security investigators are handling the case. The process involves a subpoena of coalition records, including checks that bounced at Michigan National Bank, he said.
For their part, Social Security agents said when they heard that clients weren't receiving that money, cases were taken away from the coalition.
But Lansing Social Security Administration office manager Regina Allen said it is not the department's policy to conduct background checks of those who handle Social Security payments.
She said that an impaired driving conviction, which is a misdemeanor, would not have stopped her from appointing William's coalition, but the lack of a valid, nonprofit license would have.
The contract Williams signed stipulated that the coalition was a nonprofit organization, she said.
Williams handled the income of 60 Lansing Social Security recipients beginning in January. It totaled about $30,000 a month.
The coalition's job was to prevent former drug addicts and alcoholics from spending their Social Security income on drugs and alcohol. Williams was allowed to deduct up to $50 a month from recipients' checks as payment for his services.
In exchange, Williams was to pay recipients' rent and give them cash for personal needs.
Social Security agents around the country began using the services of community-based agencies after passage of a federal law last year that requires a go-between agency to keep former drug addicts and alcoholics from spending their federal income on drugs and alcohol.