Two sentenced for stealing Social Security benefits

CHARLOTTE — Two North Carolina men were sentenced to home confinement and probation last week after having pleaded guilty last year to theft of Social Security Administration benefits in unrelated cases.

Henry Lionel Barber, 77, of Charlotte, was sentenced to three years of probation and eight months of home confinement, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina says. He also was ordered to pay $140,541 restitution to the government.

Ivan Buxton Gay Jr., 81, of Huntersville, was sentenced to five years of probation and eight months of home confinement and ordered to pay $142,000 restitution.

From 2009 to 2023, Barber stole Social Security survivor’s benefits that were paid monthly in the name of a deceased beneficiary, collecting about $140,000 over the period, court documents and proceedings showed. He was not entitled to receive the benefits.

Barber pleaded guilty Oct. 18, 2023, to theft of government funds.

As early as 1992, Gay stole the identity of Alvin Vincent Lee, an infant who died in the 1940s, court documents say. Lee’s information was used to obtain a birth certificate, North Carolina driver’s license and Social Security card.

Gay applied for and began to receive retirement and Supplemental Security Income benefits in 2006 under Lee’s name, court records show, collecting about $142,000 total.

He also applied for a passport in 2020 using Lee’s identity.

Gay pleaded guilty Nov. 6, 2023, to theft of government funds and making a false statement on a passport application.

The cases were prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Frick, a Social Security Administration lawyer assigned to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte to prosecute Social Security fraud cases.