Leader of Welfare Fraud Operation Is Convicted

The ringleader of a large welfare scam, who assisted in the falsification of hundreds of government aid applications, was convicted of 22 counts of fraud, authorities said Wednesday.

Myron Gary Larkin Sr., 50, of Woodland Hills, was convicted Tuesday and faces eight years in state prison, a fine of $220,000 and a restitution payment of $175,000, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Cabral.

Larkin “headed up the operation and it couldn’t have been done without him,” said Cabral, who works in the major fraud division of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. “He knew the system and worked it.”

Larkin was charged in April, 1992, with heading the large-scale ring that had been operating since 1987 or earlier, Cabral said.

In 1987, Cabral said, an eligibility worker for the county Department of Public Social Services noticed an unusual number of welfare checks being sent to a house Larkin owned at 1423 3rd St. in Los Angeles.

Larkin assisted dozens of people in filing false applications for various types of government aid, including lifetime Social Security benefits paying $600 a month, general relief and federal disability payments, Cabral said, and was using the 3rd Street house as a mail drop.

Investigators videotaped dozens of people driving up to the house to retrieve welfare checks, which they would endorse and turn over to Larkin. Cabral said Larkin would then give them a portion of the money and keep the rest.

The district attorney’s investigation resulted in the arrest and conviction of 13 people involved in the scam in 1989, and officials eventually were led to the ringleader--Larkin, said Cabral, who added: “We caught him before the case got any bigger or costlier.”

Larkin is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 3.