Phony veterans try to cash in on VA benefits

[unhappycamper]

Phony veterans try to cash in on VA benefits
By Michael Hoffman - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Sep 26, 2007 5:36:55 EDT

Written in the former sailor’s cursive handwriting on his claim for mental health benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs is an elaborate story about how Larry Porter supposedly was tossed into 18 feet of water at boot camp when it was known he couldn’t swim.

“I was … told to swim or die,” wrote Porter, of Seattle. “When they pulled me out, I thought I was dead.”

He went on to tell of how he watched a civilian worker die after falling from the side of a ship in a California shipyard.

Based on these claims, Porter, who served in the Navy for 15 months in the 1970s, obtained $134,000 in VA disability benefits and $40,000 from the Social Security Administration from 1999 to 2006.

It all turned out to be false. Porter is in a jail cell serving a three-year sentence, and was forced to repay all money he accepted from VA and Social Security.

Justice Department officials in Washington state detailed Porter’s story, along with seven other people accused of — or already convicted of — being military frauds, during a news conference Friday on VA fakers.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2007/09/marine_vafakers_070924/



uhc comment: This kind of crap really pisses off this phony vet. :grr:

(Chu Lai, 198 LIB)
(Cu Chi, 25th ID)