TACOMA — A Port Angeles man who forged paperwork to collect nearly $200,000 of his dead grandmother’s federal benefits was sentenced to a year in prison.
A federal judge in Tacoma also ordered Morgan Michael Hopkins to spend three years on supervised release once he’s out. He was sentenced Friday.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says Hopkins’ grandmother died in 2009, but he forged documents the make it look like she was still alive. He claimed that he was his grandmother and asked for her federal workers’ compensation death survivor benefits to continue. She had been receiving the funds since her husband died.
The Department of Labor ended the benefits when she died, but Hopkins forged her name one a statement that asked for the benefits to continue.
The agency paid almost $200,000 into her bank account and Hopkins withdrew the funds.
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