Social Security of Dead Person Collected for 12 Years

A Florida pastor is facing criminal charges after allegedly collecting a dead person’s Social Security entitlements for more than a decade.

Michael Gene Bryant, the pastor of Greater Sweetfield Missionary Baptist Church in Miami’s Coconut Grove, is facing federal criminal charges including theft of government funds and making false statements to a federal agency after he continued to claim and spend the Social Security benefits of his deceased friend after they died on October 16, 2012.

According to the federal indictment, in the mid ’90s, Bryant was appointed a representative payee for a person only identified as H.L.G. and was required to inform the Social Security Administration of any changes to the arrangement, including if H.L.G. left his custody or died.

Now, authorities have accused 57-year-old Bryant of continuing to collect Social Security payments after failing to report H.L.G.’s death, with the indictment claiming he “knowingly and willingly converted such payments, and any other part thereof, to a use other than for the use and benefit” of H.L.G.

The document filed with the Florida’s Southern District Court on March 27 claims Bryant falsely informed the SSA in November 2017, August 2019, September 2020, and September 2021 that he had spent the money on “food, housing, clothing, education, medical and dental expenses, recreation, and personal items” for H.L.G., despite knowing that they had been dead for some time. Newsweek has contacted the SSA for comment via email outside of normal working hours.

In later representative payee reports filed with the SSA in 2023, Bryant also claimed that H.L.G. had been living with him until August of that year.

It is unclear from the court document exactly how much money Bryant allegedly took in the 12 years since H.L.G. died, though it is confirmed to be in excess of $1,000. The relationship between H.L.G. and Bryant, and why he became their representative payee, is also not listed.

If found guilty, Bryant faces a maximum jail term of five years on the charge of conversion by a representative payee. For theft of government funds, he may be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison, and for making false statements to a government agency, he could be locked up for an additional maximum five years. Each of the charges also carry individual fines of $250,000 each, or “twice the gross gain or the gross loss.” Newsweek has been unable to find an attorney contact for Bryant.

A former parishioner who spoke to Local 10 News said they were “shocked” by the allegations.

“That is like unbelievable to me,” Charolette Smith, who lives next door to the church Bryant serves, said. “You go there to hear the word. Coming from a pastor, it’s like, what are you doing?”