Former Brattleboro Resident Sentenced to Prison for Social Security Fraud

SSA LogoPhoto bySocial Security Administration

The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that 76-year-old Ella Mae Woods, a former resident of Brattleboro who had recently been living in Iowa, was sentenced in United States District Court in Rutland to twelve months and one day of imprisonment. This follows her guilty plea in May 2024 to a charge of wire fraud. Visiting U.S. District Judge Mae D’Agostino from the Northern District of New York also ordered Woods to serve a one-year term of supervised release after her prison term and to pay restitution totaling $328,000. Woods has been incarcerated since April after violating the conditions of her pre-trial release.

In September 2022, a federal grand jury indicted Woods on charges of wire fraud and theft of government money. The indictment alleged that Woods misappropriated her late mother’s Social Security benefit payments for nearly 28 years after her mother, Jeannette Styles, passed away in early 1994 in Brattleboro. Although Styles’ Social Security payments should have ceased upon her death, the Social Security Administration (SSA) continued to issue payments until around 2022, unaware of her passing. Woods fraudulently converted these payments, amounting to $328,000, for her own use. As part of her scheme, Woods opened bank accounts in her mother’s name years after her death, even forging Styles’ signature on account-opening documents.

U.S. Attorney Nikolas P. Kerest praised the Office of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration for its thorough investigation of this case.

Woods was represented by Federal Public Defender Michael Desautels. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gregory Waples and Thomas Aliberti handled the prosecution.