News
Page 4
Street Roots • Nov. 13-19, 2015
Safety Net won't face criminal charges
Federal investigators determine
the nonprofit isn't criminally
liable for mismanaging
$1.4 million in disability benefits
BY EMILY GREEN
STAFF WRITER
he federal investigation into
nonprofit Safety Net of Oregon for
ylfl
mismanaging its clients’ disability
benefits is closed and no criminal charges
will be filed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has
announced.
After the 19-mOnth investigation,
officials determined neither Safety Net nor
any of its employees were to be held liable
for significant shortages in its collective
account, said Ann Mohageri, a Social
Security Administration spokesperspn.
Linda Chapman (formerly Linda Stelling)
and Mark Stelling ran Safety Net as CEO
and president, respectively. The couple
ended their 20-year marriage in January.
More than 300 beneficiaries were owed
a total of $1.4 million that, according to the
nonprofit’s ledgers, should have been in its
account but wasn’t All the misused funds
were Title 2 and Title 16 Social Security
disability benefits.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated
investigators determined the shortage was
the result of “accounting and bookkeeping
errors” in a press release issued Oct 16.
Chapman had previously told investigators
she believed the funds were missing due to
a software problem.
Safety Net,based in Portland, was
Oregon’s largest payee service. It handled
wo
federal disability benefits for more than a
thousand clients who were unable to
million
manage their finances independently due
to physical or mental disabilities. Safety
Net received Social Security benefit
paid out, former clients who were still owed
payments on behalf of its clients and was
money became concerned.
responsible for paying their
“Social Security has been telling people
rent, utilities and other bills,
‘Safety Net’s out of money,’” Kathy Wilde,
and making sure there was
litigation director at Disability Rights
money left over to meet
Oregon, told Street Roots in mid July. “A lot
"The only beneficiaries
their basic needs.
of people have been told they’re S.O.L.”
On March 6, 2014, as
whom we are not paying
Worried they wouldn’t get their money
that had their funds mis- - previously reported by
Street Roots, Safety Net was back, former Safety Net clients contacted
used are those whom we
Sen. Jeff Merkley’s office in July. His staff
served with a federal search
cannot locate? and those
warrant following allegations worked with Disability Rights Oregon to
alert the Social Security Administration of
it was mismanaging client
its responsibility under the law to repay
funds. Investigators initially
MOHAGERI,
beneficiaries if the payee organization is
believed $600,000 had beep
unable to do so, according to the senator’s
mismanaged. Less than one
spokesperson, Courtney Crowell.
month later, Safety Net
When Street Roots asked the Social
permanently closed, leaving
Security Administration if it would be
many of its clients
repaying Safety Net’s former clients later
financially insecure.
that month, Mohageri said, “The only
Over the next year, many former Safety
beneficiaries whom we are not paying that
Net clients struggled to find new payee
had their funds misused are those whom we
services and retrieve funds the now-defunct
cannot locate, and those who are deceased.’
nonprofit owed to them.
This past summer, as word spread that all
The estates of the deceased are owed
the money in Safety Net’s account had been
$185,000 that was mismanaged by Safety
a
Net, and $62,000 that was recovered from
its accounts.
Mohageri told Street Roots her office
would seek restitution from Safety Net to
repay the estates of deceased beneficiaries
still owed. When asked if those estates
would go unpaid if no restitution is
collected, she said the “issue is still under
consideration.”
The administration has since changed its
stance, and Mohageri said earlier this
month her agency is “developing estates for
payment.”
To date, the Social Security
Administration has reimbursed 216
beneficiaries who were owed money out of
the mismanaged $1.4 million - at a cost of
$1.05 million to taxpayers. More than 700
clients received funds recovered from Safety
Net.
Many clients waited more than a year
after Safety Net closed to receive funds they
were owed. Ninety of the clients whose
money was mismanaged have not been paid
See SAFETY NET, page 5
Artwork by
Chuck Dobson