A 67-year-old Loveland, Colorado woman was sentenced to six months in federal prison for collecting Social Security and Section 8 housing benefits while using two Social Security numbers. Antoinette Vazquez Cobain was also ordered to repay $33,159.48 to the Social Security Administration and $214,144.00 to the Loveland Housing Authority. The two amounts add up to about $247,300.
The Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General announced the sentence on October 20, 2026. The release says Vazquez Cobain pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, and that the sentence from U.S. District Judge Nina Y. Wang includes three years of supervised release after her prison term.
The case answers a question that benefit recipients and their families ask: how federal investigators treat a second Social Security number. The office says Vazquez Cobain used one number to collect benefits and a second to work and hide assets, from about December 2007 until August 2024. Anyone who suspects benefit fraud, or whose own number is being misused, can report it to the Social Security OIG at oig.ssa.gov/report.
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How the scheme worked, according to investigators
The release says Vazquez Cobain received payments from the Social Security Administration and from the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, which HUD funds and the Loveland Housing Authority administered. Section 8 vouchers help low-income families, older adults and people with disabilities pay rent.
According to the release, she spent almost two decades using two Social Security numbers. One was used to obtain benefits. The other was used to work and to conceal assets. That stretch, from about December 2007 to August 2024, is the period covered by the plea.
The amounts she must repay are court-ordered restitution. The release rounds the total to “nearly $250,000,” while the two exact figures, $33,159.48 to Social Security and $214,144.00 to the housing authority, are the numbers the court set. The release does not give a payment schedule.
What the officials said
Two inspectors general’s offices investigated, the Social Security OIG and the HUD OIG, and the case was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura A. Shattuck. Their statements in the release lay out why the agencies treat this kind of case seriously.
Peter McNeilly, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, said that “abusing government programs for personal gain is a serious crime that reduces the resources” available for people who rely on them. Christian Assaad, Special Agent-in-Charge of the SSA OIG’s Denver Seattle Field Division, said that committing fraud against Social Security programs “isn’t just a violation of the law.”
Machelle Jindra, Special Agent in Charge of the HUD Office of Inspector General, said the defendant’s actions “were not a one-time mistake or lapse in judgment, but a calculated and sustained effort.”
Where honest recipients stand
The prosecution turns on deliberate concealment over many years, which is how the release describes it. It involves a plea, a prison term and a restitution order, not a simple reporting error. Nothing in the release suggests that recipients who report their income and household changes correctly are at risk.
The practical lesson for older Americans runs the other way. A Social Security number is the key to benefits, credit and housing records, so a misused number can cause trouble for the person it belongs to. The Social Security OIG runs the reporting page named above for that reason, and it is the free official route for a tip or a complaint.
The open question for any reader is what to do first if a number does turn up where it should not. The release does not list reporting steps, only the link to the OIG’s report page.
Worried a Social Security number is being misused?
The Loveland case turned on a Social Security number, and the OIG release lists no reporting steps beyond its report page. A person who finds their own number being used has to move fast, because the harm spreads from one account to the next.
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More Financial Reading
- 21 Ways to Stretch a $2,087 Social Security Check
- 15 Places to Find Your Share of the $4.25 Billion States Give Back
- The New $6,000 Senior Deduction and 14 More Tax Moves for Retirees
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
