Phony War Heroes Under Investigation

By VIC WALTER and ANNA SCHECTER
November 11, 2008

On a day when Americans honor those who have served their country in the military, many of whom have been wounded, physically and emotionally by war, the FBI told ABC News that it is investigating hundreds of reports of phony heroes who have lied about their military experience or the awards and medals they claim they received for their valor in combat.
phony heroes
The FBI says it is investigating hundreds of reports of phony heroes who have lied about their military experience or the awards and medals they claim they have received for their valor in combat.

"I think it is disgusting," said Mike Sanborn, a former Marine and the FBI agent currently in charge of tracking down phony war heroes.

Sanborn said he has been alerted to more than 200 cases of phony heroes in the last year and he says the problem is growing because of the two-front war — in Iraq and Afghanistan — that Americans are fighting.

ABC News reported in March that a North Carolina man, who claimed he had served as an Army Ranger on tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Panama and Grenada and had earned medals, including the Purple Heart, was found guilty of peddling a false military record in order to collect thousands of dollars in soldier disability payments.

Randall Moneymaker's claims to collect more than $18,000 in disability payments were numerous. In a Veterans Affairs compensation and pension medical exam, he claimed he "had been involved in numerous combat situations, including RPG attacks and firefights," according to the federal indictment against him.

Topping his claims, Moneymaker said he had the scars from combat service, but federal authorities said the scars match a liposuction procedure he had done. Moneymaker has been sentenced to three years in jail, according to the Army Times.

"It is despicable for anyone to say they were in the military when they were not and even more despicable to lie about receiving a medal for valor in combat," said Special Agent Thomas Cottone, Jr, formerly a lead investigator into the illegal use and wearing of military awards and decorations.

Cottone said the Stolen Valor Act, signed into law in December of 2006, made it easier to prosecute imposters posing as war heroes who lied about their medals. The law also increased the penalty, and those convicted could face prison time and a fine of up to $100,000, according to Cottone.

more at: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=6231452&page=1

"ABC News reported in March that a North Carolina man, who claimed he had served as an Army Ranger on tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Panama and Grenada and had earned medals, including the Purple Heart, was found guilty of peddling a false military record in order to collect thousands of dollars in soldier disability payments."

This stooge is a fake, a fraud, a cardboard cutout, a phony, a never-was, and he's been bilking the system for thousands based on his fake claims.
But that same system will run around like a headless chicken with its ass on fire in a desperate bid to deny a couple hundred dollars to actual vets, with actual records and ID and registrations and medals and wounds and families?

Now, color me calloused but my first thought of where the problem is here doesn't lie with some potatohead dumbfuck from North Carolina...

is so convoluted, paperwork-heavy and slow.

If it wasn't for shitnecks like this guy, real veterans could submit paperwork for a cursory once-over and see results that week.

But I also wonder about the shredding of documents going on at some VA offices. How could an honest person prove their service if the docs have been destroyed?

After they're stomped, send the little pudknockers to a Brig where some pissed off real Marine can kick their ass daily.

A person who I knew way back in high school some how tracked me down and got my email address. I then got an email addressed to me and many many others saying how he was a combat veteran and that McCain was a veteran and to vote for McCain. I knew this guy and he was never in the military, The closest he got was his brother in the National Guard. I called him out but yet he continued his rant about serving in Vietnam. It just made me sick. Lying asshole.