Delaware County Man Sentenced to Prison for Social Security Fraud

A Delaware County, Pennsylvania, man was sentenced June 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York to 16 months in prison for Social Security fraud.

Robert M. Fretz, 57, of Drexel Hill, pleaded guilty in December 2024 to one count of theft of public money. Between 2016 and 2023 he received $116,878 in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits while concealing employment and wages from the Social Security Administration, per the Justice Department release.

The sentence also includes three years of supervised release and a requirement that Fretz pay full restitution of $116,878. Social Security Disability Insurance paid $143 billion to 8.9 million disabled workers and their families in 2024; eligibility requires that applicants demonstrate they cannot engage in substantial gainful activity, defined in 2025 as monthly earnings above $1,620 for non-blind individuals.

The case shifts one individual from continued benefit receipt to incarceration and repayment. Sentencing occurred under federal guidelines for theft of government funds (18 U.S.C. § 641). Restitution is due immediately upon release; the Bureau of Prisons will begin the 16-month term following any appeal period.

Downstream, the conviction triggers mandatory reporting to the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General for benefit termination and overpayment recovery. It also activates standard inter-agency data matching between SSA, IRS, and state workforce agencies that now will scrutinize similar earnings records for other recipients in the five-county Philadelphia region.

Federal prosecutors in multiple districts have pursued parallel concealment cases since 2023 as SSA’s own data-analytics tools improved detection of unreported wages.

This sentencing is the latest in a series of federal actions targeting Social Security Disability Insurance fraud. The Justice Department has pursued dozens of similar prosecutions in the past two years after SSA expanded its Cooperative Disability Investigations units and cross-checked earnings data with IRS records.

The original charge against Fretz was filed in the Northern District of New York because he submitted false documents while residing temporarily in that jurisdiction.