Co-owner of an Ozark business sentenced for Social Security Fraud, Perjury

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KY3) -A former Harrisonville, Missouri, man has been sentenced in federal court for Social Security fraud and perjury.

The U.S. Department of Justice said Michael Sylvara, 39, who co-owns a business in Ozark, Missouri, but lived in Harrisonville at the time of the crime, was sentenced Wednesday, Nov. 6, to two years and three months in federal prison without parole.

Sylvara is a co-owner of Volleyball Beach Ozark, the second-largest indoor sand facility in the world. He was indicted for Social Security fraud after overseeing his father’s Social Security benefits from 2016 to 2019. During that time, Sylvara converted more than $42,000 of his father’s benefits.

As the representative payee for his now-deceased father, Sylvara was legally obligated to use all Social Security benefit payments to meet his father’s needs. A witness at the trial in October 2022 testified that she purchased necessities for Sylvara’s father, including clothes, underwear, socks, and shoes, without being reimbursed.

The witness also testified that Sylvara’s father only had water, bread, condiments and cat food in his fridge and that she saw him eat cat food.

The court also ordered Sylvara to pay $42,369 in restitution to the government.

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