A Tucson man is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he kept collecting his deceased mother’s Social Security payments for nearly five years after she died. His name is Ruffin Alford III, and he’s 48.
A federal grand jury in Tucson returned an indictment against Alford on a charge of theft of government money. He’s scheduled to appear in federal court on September 25, 2026.
What He’s Accused Of
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, the indictment alleges that between October 2020 and August 2025, Alford retained $104,013 in Social Security benefits that continued being issued to his deceased mother’s bank account. That’s just about five years of monthly payments that, according to prosecutors, should have stopped the moment she died, but instead kept landing in an account Alford had access to.
This is actually a more common type of fraud than people might expect. When someone dies, their Social Security benefits are supposed to stop, but if nobody reports the death to the Social Security Administration, or if a bank account stays open and active, payments can keep flowing in for a long time before anyone notices. Whether that’s what happened here or something more deliberate is exactly what the case will need to sort out.
The Investigation
The case was investigated by the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, the agency responsible for looking into exactly this kind of benefit fraud. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Corey Marasco and Mary Sue Feldmeier, from the District of Arizona’s Tucson office, are handling the prosecution.
What He’s Facing
If convicted, Alford faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. That’s the standard maximum penalty tied to a theft of government money charge, regardless of how the specific dollar amount breaks down.
Not an Isolated Type of Case
Cases like this pop up more often than people might think. The Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General regularly investigates what are sometimes called representative-payee cases, situations where someone continues receiving a deceased person’s benefits, whether through inaction, oversight, or intentional concealment of the death. Similar cases have come up in other states too, including one in Pennsylvania involving a man charged with keeping a Social Security check that was never his to begin with.
Where the Case Stands
Right now, this remains just an indictment, which is a formal accusation, not a conviction. Alford is presumed innocent unless the government proves its case beyond a reasonable doubt in court. His court appearance later this month should give a clearer picture of how the case will proceed from here.