A Kentucky disability lawyer, who pleaded guilty to stealing $600 million from the Social Security Administration and bribing a judge in March, has vanished, according to the FBI on Saturday.
Eric Conn, 56, was ordered to return tens of millions of dollars to the federal government. His sentencing was scheduled for next month.
The FBI revealed that on Saturday, Conn violated his bond agreement by removing his electronic monitoring device, which triggered the U.S. District Court to release a warrant for his arrest. However, David Habich, the General Counsel for the FBI’s Louisville headquarters said that Conn’s “whereabouts are currently unknown.”
Conn’s attorney, Scott White, told The Lexington Herald-Leader, that he is “extremely concerned” about his client. He encouraged Conn to turn himself into the authorities; it’s never too late to do the “right thing”
At one of Conn’s hearings, an FBI agent testified that Conn’s employees overheard him toying with the idea of fleeing to Cuba or Ecuador to avoid the charges and that he had wired money out of the United States.
Conn established his practice, “Mr. Social Security” in 1993. Since then, he has single-handily built one of the most profitable disability firms in the United States.
But Conn’s empire began to crumble right before his eyes when federal investigators discovered that he had been bribing a doctor and a judge to accept disability claims based on bogus medical evidence.
In March, he agreed to reimburse the federal government $5.7 million and to repay Social Security $46 million as a part of his plea deal. A federal judge also ordered Conn to pay $12 million in impairments and $19 million in disadvantages to the government and two former Social Security employees who tried to uncover the scandal.
In addition, Conn is facing a liability judgment from a class action lawsuit prompted by his former clients. The hearing, to determine the damages, is scheduled for later this month. The scheme urged the federal government to review the eligibility of nearly 1,500 people receiving benefits. As a result, more than half of the 1500 people lost their benefits.
