#Middlebury #Veterans #OIG
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs is always busy, and that’s a good thing. Here’s what they’ve been up to lately:
A surviving spouse in Florida lied to the VA and collected benefits he wasn’t entitled to receive … for 30 years. As the surviving spouse of a deceased service member, he collected DIC benefits (dependency and indemnity compensation) to the tune of nearly $365,000 before it was all over. During all those years he remarried twice and was no longer legally eligible to receive the benefits. When nabbed, he pleaded guilty. He’s looking at 10 years in the pen, as well as forfeiting all the stolen money.
Another case is a double whammy: A woman not only lied to get a VA home loan but then lied to an arms dealer about being the purchaser of firearms when she wasn’t. She’s nailed with wire fraud for using email to the VA and the lender about the loan. Then, at a gun store, she stated that she was the gun purchaser while in the company of someone who indicated which weapons she should buy and who wasn’t allowed by law to purchase firearms. Three years in prison and a $177,000 fine don’t seem like enough.
A pair of house cleaners attracted the attention of several agencies, including the VAOIG, Homeland Security and the Post Office, for their scams against clients. Specifically, they stole personal information by having the mail rerouted from clients’ homes and using the info to open lines of credit, get loans and credit cards and steal identities. (Clue to thieves: When you want to steal mail, don’t have it rerouted to your home address.) One of the pair is looking at 22 years in prison and a half-million-dollar fine.
And then there was the VA employee who took bribes to approve disability benefits applications. This included extortion of monies and then, when he suspected the game was up, witness tampering.
The VAOIG never rests.
© 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.
