Posted on: Thursday, April 25, 2002

Three indicted in Social Security fraud

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Writer

A federal grand jury yesterday indicted two men and a woman on charges they illegally received Social Security benefits.

O'ahu residents Karllton Kalani Gorai, 44, and Anna Marie Freede, 48, and Maui resident Rodney Peter Kahana, 47, are accused in separate cases of unlawfully receiving benefits intended for the care and welfare of their children.

Gorai, Freede and Kahana at one time legally received Social Security disability and survivors' benefits on behalf of their children, assistant U.S. attorney Tracy Hino said.

But when the three no longer had custody of their children, they are accused of failing to notify the Social Security Administration and continuing to receive money, he said.

The money was used for their own benefit and not for the care and welfare of their children, he said.

"Basically the indictments allege that the defendants stole money, not only from the federal government, but from their own children," Hino said. "So the children still qualified, it's just that the parents were not supposed to be getting that money."

Gorai is charged with four counts of fraud and faces a maximum 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted.

Freede and Kahana were charged with two counts each and face up to 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Hino said the total amount of benefits they are alleged to have received was about $55,000.