This is not the one I was thinking of. There were huge fraud stories going back 30+ years. This is a much more recent one… $550 million in fraud by one small town lawyer.

Looks like over the years, SS has gotten much better with fraud prosecutions and in many cases gone too far.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2018/03/29/how-a-country-lawyer-pulled-off-the-biggest-social-security-fraud-ever-and-why-it-could-happen-again.html