A Queens man is expected to be sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to leaving his father’s body in a Long Island morgue in order to collect the man’s pension and social security benefits, authorities said.
Christopher Bunn, 49, didn’t claim his father’s body in the Nassau County morgue for more than a year, continuing to collect more than $25,000 in benefits, State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a statement.
“We will continue to work with state and federal authorities to root out fraud and protect the retirement system,” DiNapoli said.
Bunn’s father, James Bunn, died on Feb. 24, 2010, DiNapoli said. The money was deposited into a checking account in his father’s name until officials realized that his father’s body was lying in a morgue in May 2011.
Bunn posted on Facebook three days after his dad passed away.
“From the son comes the father and from the father the son,” Bunn wrote. “Goodbye, Dad. I love you.”
Bunn pleaded guilty in October, DiNapoli said. He has already served six months in a federal prison related to this arrest.
“The defendant has admitted to receiving his deceased father’s social security and pension payments for well over a year, following his death,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. “Thus robbing the New York pension system and the federal government of tens of thousands of dollars in unlawfully obtained benefits. My office will continue to pursue and prosecute individuals who abuse the system for their own benefit.”
