#Middlebury #Veterans #OIG
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General has saved us a potential $1.8 billion. When it comes to nailing scammers who steal from the VA, they just never give up.
A nurse at the VA pleaded guilty to COVID-19 vaccination card fraud and theft of government funds. Her scam involved stealing authentic vax record cards, right from the beginning when the vaccines first came out, and included snagging the lot numbers to make it appear legit. Then she went online to sell her wares, charging anywhere from $150 to $200 for each fake card.
The scammer wasn’t too bright to peddle the cards that way. The Department of Justice has a whole department dedicated to disaster fraud, and you know that watching the internet was probably the first thing they did when COVID hit. When she was nabbed, the scammer was investigated by no less than three government agencies, plus the OIG.
Then there was the scammer, a habitual offender who, with two co-conspirators, defrauded the VA by creating aliases that made them appear to be heirs of veterans who had died. By generating fake documents, they grabbed up survivor benefits and unclaimed property (to the tune of nearly a half million dollars). They have been charged with multiple offenses. It doesn’t help that one scammer skipped out and didn’t show for court, thus generating a bench warrant for her arrest.
Then there was the lowest of the low, a scammer who was in a position of responsibility as a fiduciary. His job was to receive payments on behalf of veterans, in his case, 10 disabled vets, and manage their money. The scammer, who ran his own fiduciary services company, stole more than $300,000, including from the estate of a woman who’d died a few years ago.
When sentenced, he could get as many as 50 years in the federal pen. He deserves every day of that. They all do.
© 2022 King Features Synd., Inc.
