§ 39. Protection against fraud; validating overpayments.

Any person who shall knowingly make any false statement or shall falsify or permit to be falsified any record or records of this Retirement System in any attempt to defraud such system as a result of such act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punishable therefor under the laws of the State of Maryland. Should any change or error in the records result in any member or beneficiary receiving from the Retirement System more or less than he would have been entitled to receive had the records been correct, the Board of Trustees shall correct such error and, as far as practicable, shall adjust the payments in such a manner that the actuarial equivalent of the payment to which said member or beneficiary was correctly entitled shall be paid. Provided, however, that any overpayments of benefits which have been made, or which may be made before the effective date of this ordinance, by the Retirement System as a result of administrative errors, with the exception of overpayments resulting from the fraud or deliberate misrepresentation of a beneficiary or potential beneficiary, are hereby waived to the extent that they have not been recovered by the system prior to that date, and no request or demand for reimbursement thereof shall be made after January 1, 1974, upon any retired member or his beneficiary who shall have received same. No request or demand shall be made upon the Retirement System for the return of any such overpayments which may have been recovered by the system before the effective date of this ordinance.