VA worker, 13 others charged in fraud scheme
By Brett Barrouquere - The Associated Press
Posted : Thursday Nov 20, 2008 16:37:08 EST
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_vafraudscheme_112008/
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Veterans Administration employee and 13 other people have been charged with conspiring to steal nearly $2 million in disability claims.
Veterans Affairs service representative Jeffrey Allan McGill and Daniel Ryan Parker, a veteran and officer with the Disabled American Veterans, were among the 14 charged Wednesday by a federal grand jury with conspiring to defraud the U.S. of $1.9 million through the submission of false veterans disability claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The indictment outlines an alleged scheme for veterans to falsely claim to have suffered from bipolar disorder, hearing loss, frostbite, back injuries and other ailments and disabilities.
The indictment says veterans received lump-sum payments for back pay and then kick backed as much as two-thirds of it to Parker and McGill.
“They’re all veterans,” U.S. Attorney David Huber said at a news conference Thursday. “That’s what’s sad about all of this.”
Parker, 37, of Crestwood, is free on $25,000 bond. He is also charged with stealing $47,000 from Disabled American Veterans. His attorney, Brian Butler of Louisville, said his client plans to plead not guilty.
“We’ve been aware of the investigation for months and have cooperated with investigators,” Butler said.
A phone message left for McGill, 37, was not immediately returned Thursday morning.
Huber said the remaining defendants, who live in Kentucky, Illinois and West Virginia, would voluntarily surrender at arraignment on Dec. 16 in Louisville.
Huber said Parker and McGill received between $500,000 and $600,000 in kickbacks, with the rest of the stolen money being split among the participants.
According to the indictment, starting in 2003 and continuing until this month, Parker and McGill recruited friends, relatives and acquaintances who were military veterans to file fraudulent claims with the VA.
Parker and McGill then allegedly either altered the veterans’ medical records, or created counterfeit medical records, to give the appearance that the veterans had service related disabilities.
That resulted in the veterans receiving 100 percent disability for problems such as depression or cancer due to Agent Orange exposure during combat in Vietnam, according to the indictment.
Huber said the case came to light after a tip from a confidential source. He declined to discuss how the source knew about the alleged plot.
“But for that confidential source, this case may not have been known for some time, if at all,” Huber said.
Michael Keen, the resident agent in charge for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Louisville, said the scheme could hurt veterans who needed the funds allegedly purloined.
“Obviously, the Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t have a bottomless pit of money,” Keen said.
Huber said prosecutors will try to recoup the money taken during the scheme.
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Michael Keen is another idiot mouthpiece, veterans compensation is similar to Social Security payments, it comes from a seperate pool of money and does not take away from "other veterans" as he claims here. This fraud did not prevent one other veterans claim from being approved or not one veteran was denied medical care because of this.
Bottom line is these men, comspired to steal money from the Veterans Administration thru their positions of trust they dummied up documents to help their "co-conspirators claims get approved" nothing more and nothing less, these men are crooks and the US Attorney should use his power to take their cars, theirs houses and other personal items and sell them at auction to retrieve the governments money. They are crooks nothing more and nothing less, the fact they are veterans does not give them any sort of pass or a more lenient sentence, if nothing else they should have additional time added on to their sentence for taking advantahe of a federal program that does HELP veterans harmed in the line of duty.
Bottom line fraud is involved in less than 1% of all veterans claims, it has a better record than most government agencies, for the most part veterans are honest and want nothing more than what they are entitled to.
Friday, November 21, 2008
VA worker, 13 others charged in fraud scheme
