SSA Claim: Prompt and Full Disclosure of Fraud

I applied for disability benefits from the U.S. Social Security Administration on April 20, 1993.  I advised SSA of infirmities in my former employer's determination that I suffered from a severe mental illness that rendered me unemployable.  SSA granted my claim for benefits effective August 17, 1993.  It was  not until September 24, 1993 -- about five weeks later -- that the D.C. Department of Human Rights issued its Determination on Reconsideration rejecting my arguments that my job termination was unlawful and rejecting written evidence that I had submitted to the agency tending to show that Akin Gump did not in fact consult Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D. or the Sheppard Pratt Employee Assistance Program, who supposedly concurred in the firm's decision to terminate my employment for mental health reasons.  As of August 1993 Akin Gump had an outstanding invitation to mediate the unlawful job termination Complaint issued by DHR on February 4, 1992.


August 20, 1993
3801 Connecticut Avenue, NW
#136
Washington, DC  20008

Social Security Administration
Office of Disability and
   International Operations
1500 Woodlawn Drive
Baltimore, MD  21241-0001

RE: Disability Claim no. xxx-xx-xxxx

Dear Sir:

I have been advised by letter dated August 17, 1993 that my claim for Social Security disability benefits has been approved.

My claim was based on information provided to me by my former employer, the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, that attorney managers of the firm had determined on the basis of consultations with two mental health professionals that I was paranoid and potentially violent.

Gertrude R. Ticho, M.D., the psychiatrist who Akin Gump claims determined that I was paranoid and potentially violent, advised me in a letter dated July 4, 1993 that in fact she was never contacted by any attorney managers at Akin Gump, including Mr. Dennis M. Race.

In a letter to me dated July 14, 1993, Sheppard Pratt Preferred Resources, the other mental health resource that Akin Gump claims to have contacted, states that it has no record of any communications with either Mr. Dennis M. Race or Mr. Malcolm Lassman, two attorney managers of Akin Gump.

Evidence filed with the District of Columbia Department of Human Rights and Minority Business Development by Akin Gump in sworn pleadings, in Freedman v. Akin, Gump, Hauer & Feld, Docket No. 92-087-P(N), that Akin Gump had determined in consultation with two mental health professionals that I was paranoid  and potentially violent, may have been fabricated by attorney managers of Akin Gump, in violation of statutes of the District of Columbia.

The claim I submitted for Social Security benefits was made in good faith, and was based on information provided to me by my former employer and other facts that were accurately represented by me.

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman