Pilates instructor fakes being partially paralyzed and gets $148K in benefits, feds say
A pilates instructor collected more than $148,000 in benefits she wasn’t owed by faking partial paralysis and pretending she was “too disabled” to work, federal prosecutors said.
She kept reporting to the Social Security Administration that she experienced debilitating symptoms, including paralysis on the right side of her body and brain injury, for 15 years as a result of a stroke she had in 2008, according to prosecutors.
The Utah woman was found to be “highly functional within months of her stroke” — when she first claimed she had disabilities — and graduated from college, got her driver’s license, became a pilates instructor in 2015 and was certified as a yoga teacher in 2018, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah said in a Sept 30 news release.
SSA agents saw her teaching pilates classes and posting about the classes online, according to court documents.
The woman wrongly received $109,971.34 in Social Security disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income benefits, more than $31,000 in Medicare benefits and more than $7,000 in Medicaid benefits, court documents show.
She “wanted to have it both ways,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “She wanted access to public funds reserved for the severely disabled while enjoying a life free from the restrictions of severe disability.”
“She exaggerated her symptoms time and time again to defraud the Social Security Administration (‘SSA’) and other government agencies for some fifteen years,” the sentencing memorandum says.
The woman, 41, of Taylorsville, was sentenced to one year of home detention and five years of probation after she pleaded guilty to wire fraud on July 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
She must pay $148,310.25 in restitution as part of her sentencing, according to prosecutors.
“By purporting debilitating effects from a stroke and partial paralysis, her false exaggerations caused SSA to improperly pay her disability benefits,” Michelle L. Anderson, the acting inspector general for the Social Security Administration, said in a statement.
The woman’s defense attorney didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Oct. 2.
After the woman’s stroke in 2008, she applied for SSA benefits and told a doctor she had brain damage during a psychiatric assessment — days after she finished upper-level college coursework and received A’s and B’s as grades, according to prosecutors.
The SSA was unaware of the woman’s college coursework at the time and approved her disability benefits application in December 2009, prosecutors said.
Though the agency repeatedly reminded her that she needed to report any improvements in her physical and cognitive abilities, she didn’t, according to prosecutors.
She received her driver’s license while reporting to the SSA that she couldn’t drive “due to crippling physical symptoms,” prosecutors said.
After becoming certified as a pilates instructor and a yoga teacher, the SSA discovered in February 2021 that she had been working, according to prosecutors.
The agency sent her a letter saying it overpaid disability benefits to her and that she wasn’t eligible for the money, prosecutors said.
The woman asked the SSA to waive the overpayment and continued to lie — telling the SSA she was still disabled and unable to work, according to prosecutors.
Afterward, in March 2022, the woman posted a photo to social media, showing herself on a yoga mat and wrote that she was preparing for a performance, court document show.
“Dancing in heels all night can be taxing,” she captioned the post, according to a screengrab included in court documents.
In the winter of 2022 and 2023, she reported to the SSA that because of her partial paralysis and other symptoms, she struggled to walk, stand and use her arms, prosecutors said.
But she was seen living an active lifestyle and teaching pilates in hours of footage recorded by SSA agents, according to prosecutors.
Ahead of sentencing, her attorney, Greg G. Skordas, wrote that the woman “acknowledges her crime is a very serious defense” and accepted responsibility by agreeing to a pre-indictment plea deal, court documents show.
Taylorsville, where the woman is from, is about a 10-mile drive southwest from Salt Lake City.