Washington Man, 74, convicted for tapping into a missing brother’s social security account

The peninsula gateway

An Olalla man was sentenced to two years in federal prison for drawing social security benefits from a brother who disappeared after visiting him.

Chris Harvey Sayler, 74, raised at least $ 388,000 over the past 20 years using the identity of his brother Jarvis, who, according to federal prosecutors, was last seen after briefly living with Chris Sayler in the Vancouver, Washington area in 1988.

Sayler was sentenced to 25 months in prison by the US District Court in Tacoma on Thursday, according to a press release from acting US attorney Tessa Gorman. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to wire fraud and grievous identity theft earlier this year.

“This is a sad case for everyone involved – including the public …” said US District Judge Robert J. Bryan. “It is a crime against all taxpayers in the country.” Judge Bryan stated that without his age, health, and military service, Sayler would face a much longer prison term.

According to records cited in the press release, Chris Sayler’s brother, Jarvis L. Sayler, then 37, moved from Missouri to the Vancouver area in 1988.

“Jarvis Sayler was born with partial eyesight and has received social security disability benefits since 1977,” the press release said. “Jarvis Sayler wrote a few letters to Missouri between June and September 1988, but that was the last time anyone heard from him.”

A third brother reported him missing the next year. The Clark County Sheriff’s deputies “interviewed Chris Sayler about his brother’s whereabouts at the time,” the press release said. “Sayler claimed his brother moved away from home after the two had an argument. This was the last reported sighting of Jarvis Sayler.”

Chris Sayler then procured a Washington State ID card for Jarvis Sayler with his own photo, prosecutors said. When the facial recognition software announced the move, Chris Sayler claimed the brothers were twins – even though their birth dates were four years apart. Later investigations revealed that the two men were not biologically related, prosecutors said.

“In a conversation with family members in September 2019, Sayler claimed that he hadn’t seen his brother for more than 15 years,” the press release said. “When Sayler was interviewed by law enforcement at the time of his arrest in October 2019, he claimed he last saw his brother in 2016 and previously in 2012.”

Prosecutors said Jarvis Sayler’s social security benefits were transferred to an account in Vancouver in 1998, possibly earlier. When Chris Sayler moved to Olalla, Kitsap County, the account was said to have followed him there. Records show debit card purchases from the account at stores such as Costco and Fred Meyer.

The fraud was “not an isolated incident of dishonesty or a brief mistake in judgment at a difficult time,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Diggs in a judgment memo, “but a separate decision to steal month after month for nearly 30 years.” . “

Chris Sayler was arrested on October 1, 2019 after an investigation by the Inspector General of the Social Security Agency.

“I’m sorry that I caused all of this problem,” Sayler said at the September 16 hearing. “I should not have done it.”