Being Invisible | Alaska | Social Security Fraud

Ellis Kingsep, Canadian National, was sentenced on May 14,2025, for stealing almost a half a million dollars of his mom’s Social Security benefits over a 30 year period – give or take, as the date of her passing is still unknown. While there has been no record of her since 1993, there has been no death certificate either. But there has been a lot of mail correspondence between her and the U.S. Department of Social Security Administration (SSA) that Kingsep intercepted.

To conceal that he was receiving his mother’s mail, sending correspondence in her name, and fraudulently taking her SSA benefits, Kingsep created an intricate web of mail forwarding requests by using private postal mailbox accounts in California, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Alaska. For instance, in 2013, the SSA received a change of address notice purportedly signed by Kingsep’s mother, stating she was moving to Alaska and requesting her address be changed to one in Fairbanks, AK. That address in Fairbanks was for a mail forwarding service with whom Kingsep had opened an account. This mail forwarding service not only received mail addressed to his mother but repackaged and shipped it to two different private mailbox services located in Vancouver, where Kingsep also had accounts. Those services then repackaged and forwarded the already forwarded mail to a private mailbox service in Los Angeles, where Kingsep would regularly collect it.

At the time of his arrest in July 2024, Kingsep was also found to have multiple books focused on being “invisible” and creating fake IDs, along with a folder filled with photocopies of his mother’s signature.

On May 14, 2025, Kingsep was sentenced today to two and a half years in prison and was ordered to pay full restitution of $420,000. Kingsep’s mother would now be 103 years old and is presumed deceased

Great job by the United States Department of Social Security Administration in this case.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Canadian National sentenced to 30 months in prison for decades of fraud” published by Alaska News Source on May 14, 2025.

Ellis Kingsep, a 77-year-old Canadian National, was sentenced on Monday to 30 months in prison for committing fraud. The sentencing at the federal courthouse in Fairbanks followed a guilty plea signed by Kingsep. He has been charged with stealing over $420,000 in Social Security benefits for three decades.

According to the Dept. of Justice, “from roughly 1995 to 2023, Kingsep devised and executed an elaborate scheme to defraud the Social Security Administration (SSA) by causing the agency to send benefits payments intended for Kingsep’s mother to accounts Kingsep controlled. Kingsep’s mother would now be 103 years old and is presumed deceased.”