#MiddleburyCT #Veterans #Scammers
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
Mostly you think of scammers who steal as lowlifes, but it’s not always the case. Sometimes they’re well-educated professionals who have a lot to lose when they’re caught.
Take the case of the doctor who took money that was meant to go to those who’d suffered severe traumatic injuries. This doctor, a decorated Navy commander, conspired with others to lie their way to a $2 million profit in an insurance program that helps service members who were traumatically injured while on active duty. The co-conspirators would coax others to create fake or exaggerated claims for injuries in exchange for a portion of the proceeds.
Enter the doctor who, in exchange for a kickback, would verify that the injuries and disabilities existed and sign off on the application for the claim, sometimes saying he’d actually seen the person making the claim. Or he would provide the medical records of others to those who were submitting fake claims.
The other nine co-conspirators included a nurse (who helped to falsify medical records) and a former Navy mechanic (who actively recruited others into the scheme, where he netted nearly $400,000). They kept the scam going for at least three years. The various charges included fraud, wire fraud and making a false and fraudulent claim.
Of all the co-conspirators, it’s the Navy doctor who disappointed me the most. This wasn’t a short-term scam; it went on long enough that one wonders whether in all that time the doctor thought about how he got to that point.
This is the same man who, serving in Iraq, climbed onto a roof in 2007 to help a tiny infant who wasn’t breathing properly, evacuated the baby via helicopter under sniper fire, and got him into surgery in a hospital. The baby was saved and back home in a week.
It’s hard to reconcile the image of that doctor with his participation in a theft scam that netted him only $180,000 over three years. And now he’s potentially facing 20 years in prison.
© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.
