Fort Lauderdale man imitated dead mother’s ex-husband to steal $90,000 pension, cops say
There was nothing Oedipal about Fort Lauderdale resident Marc Vega wanting the state to believe that he was his mother’s husband. As Florida Department of Law Enforcement describes the situation, it was pure greed.
FDLE says Vega assumed the role of his dead mother’s ex-husband, convinced a state agency they were still married when she died and collected $90,000 of her pension benefits before he was caught. After Tuesday’s arrest by Hollywood police, Vega, 42, sits in Broward County Jail charged with organized scheme to defraud, grand theft and uttering forged instruments.
Vega’s bond amount, according to online jail records? $90,000.
He’ll have to surrender his passport as well as prove his bond money didn’t come from criminal activity. Vega was six months into five years of community control probation for three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, one count of kidnapping and one count of escape.
That probation followed Vega’s seven years in prison on the escape, kidnapping, aggravated battery charges as well as one count of domestic battery-strangulation and aggravated assault with a weapon, no intent to kill.
Had he not been busted as an domestic abuser, as FDLE describes the current fraud case, he might not have been exposed as a skilled fraudster.
A mother, an ex-husband and a wife
FDLE says Vega’s mother had been a state employee. When she died in 2010, nobody could claim any survivor benefits on her state retirement account, as FDLE says the Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) explained to Vega. He was 30, five years too old. Her spouse could claim those benefits, but Vega’s mother was divorced.
So, FDLE said, Vega reached out to DMS in 2011, claiming to be his mother’s ex-husband and that they were still married when his mother died. FDLE added that he produced “several altered and fictitious documents” to back up both claims. This allowed him to collect survivor benefits.
But Vega was arrested in February 2013 and, after conviction, prison in 2014 on the above charges after a domestic violence episode in which he hit his wife with a chair; choked her; and threatened to cut her face. Online records say they had been married less than two years.
During Vega’s incarceration, FDLE said, his wife “tried to access the (retirement) benefits.” And that brought out the red flags at DMS.
“The DMS-Office of Inspector General contacted FDLE after receiving correspondence from what appeared to be more than one person claiming to be the husband,” FDLE said.
The investigation ended with Vega’s arrest on Tuesday.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 7:34 PM.
