VA Fiduciary Pleads Guilty to Stealing $160,394 From a Family Member in Her Care

Appointed to protect a family member's money, Ferrell instead withdrew the veteran's VA benefits and Social Security payments from a joint account for two years and spent them on herself. $160,394.02 in restitution owed.

Court record — not allegation. The defendant in this case, Barbara Ferrell, 63, of Seth, West Virginia, was convicted. The facts below are drawn from the official account of the case, linked at the bottom of this page.
$160,394Stolen ($114,660.82 VA + $45,733.20 Social Security)
OutcomePleaded guilty (July 2026); sentencing set for November 16, 2026 — faces up to 10 years
ForumU.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia (Case No. 2:26-cr-80)

Barbara Ferrell served as the VA-appointed fiduciary for a family member from October 20, 2021 through March 11, 2024, and as the family member's Social Security representative payee from about August 2021 to November 2024.

She admitted that from April 2022 through February 2024 she took approximately $114,660.82 in VA fiduciary benefits meant for the family member, and approximately $45,733.20 in Social Security benefits from June 2022 through July 2024.

She stole the funds by periodically withdrawing money from a joint checking account after the benefits were electronically deposited, and spent the money for her own use and enjoyment. She pleaded guilty to theft of government monies and owes $160,394.02 in restitution.

"Stealing from veterans is a particularly disgraceful form of greed"
— U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia
The system these cases ran through is run by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins. The accountability record — the letters, the filings, the unanswered questions — is kept at DearDougCollins.com. For the veterans on the other side of the VA's machinery — including the exposure-classification fight — the hub is BrownWaterVet.com.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of West Virginia. Case file in the VA Fraud case files — part of the VA Fraud record. Cases are published as the courts decided them; amounts are stated as the Justice Department states them (billed, stolen, or ordered in restitution, as labeled).

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