Man pays for cashing dead dad's checks

The U.S. Attorney's Office has agreed to a civil settlement of more than $1.7 million to be paid by a Highland man who had been collecting his father's monthly Civil Service Retirement for more than 10 years after the father's death.

David Barry Hendrickson, 71, was accused in the civil lawsuit of knowingly submitting false claims to the U.S. government, and he also pleaded guilty in August 2008 to a criminal charge of theft of government funds.

In addition to the civil settlement announced Tuesday, Hendrickson could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in the criminal case Aug. 26.

Hendrickson's father retired from his position as a personnel officer for the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in Long Beach, Calif., in 1972 and began receiving federal retirement benefits, prosecutors said. Hendrickson's father died in October 1995.

Following his father's death, monthly federal retirement benefits continued to be electronically deposited into a Wells Fargo bank account of which Hendrickson was a joint holder, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Hendrickson kept collecting the benefits and continued to use the funds for his personal use until August 2006. The total amount of funds collected by Hendrickson after his father's death was more than $600,000, prosecutors said.

Once discovered, authorities were able to recover about $60,000 from the bank account. Under the False Claims Act, the United States is entitled to recover three times the actual amount received, according to prosecutors.

— Ethan Thomas