Pubdate: Sat, 20 Apr 2002
Source: Post-Standard, The (NY)
Copyright: 2002, Syracuse Post-Standard
Contact:  http://www.syracuse.com/syrnewspapers/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/686
Author: John O'Brien

FEDS: DRUG SALES NOT REPORTED TO SOCIAL SECURITY

Man Accused of Being a Drug Dealer Now Also Accused of Hiding Drug Income

An accused drug dealer has been charged with defrauding the federal 
government by collecting welfare benefits without revealing his 
income from drug sales.

Van Williams, 57, of 4371 Olympus Heights Drive, Onondaga, pleaded 
innocent this week to charges that he defrauded the Social Security 
Administration by failing to disclose that he was working as a drug 
dealer since 1995 while he collected monthly benefits. Williams 
applied for Social Security benefits by saying a knee injury left him 
unable to work.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher said she wasn't aware of 
another case in which an accused drug dealer was charged with fraud 
on accusations he failed to disclose to the government that he was 
working as a drug trafficker.

"Technically, it's considered self-employment," she said.

Williams was indicted in March on charges of conspiring with eight 
others to sell cocaine, money-laundering, defrauding the federal 
government and illegal weapons possession. He had already been 
indicted on the drug and weapons charges. The indictment lists these 
properties of Williams as proceeds of crime that should be forfeited: 
$347,850 in cash in a safe deposit box; $79,335 in cash found in a 
drop ceiling in his home; the contents of nine bank accounts; a 1992 
Jeep Cherokee; a 1999 Lexus RX300 sport utility vehicle; a 1999 
Mercedes-Benz ML430 SUV; a pro-stock nitrous oxide dragster bearing 
the name "Mission Accomplished"; three guns; and three homes in the 
Syracuse area.

Williams was convicted in 1980 of selling heroin and served three 
years in prison. He was convicted in 1990 of possessing cocaine and 
served another three years in prison. "It boils down to greed," 
Fletcher said. "He'd been arrested and convicted and sent to prison 
twice for it. He had his house on Onondaga Hill, he had his Social 
Security, his wife had a job. But it just wasn't enough."

Williams' lawyer, Richard Priest, said the case started out in state 
court until the large amounts of cash turned up. That got the 
attention of federal authorities, he said.

Priest said the fraud charges pose a minimal threat to Williams in 
comparison with the drug charges, for which he would face more than 
10 years in prison if convicted.

Williams is being held in jail without bail.
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