This is the
REAL fraud that Trump needs to do something about.....not the nonsense that he and other Republicans have complained about with Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.,
Thousands of military veterans have been filing fraudulent VA claims for years.....and 99.99% of them get away with it. These veterans get away with it because The Department Of Veteran Affairs does not have enough investigators to combat this disability fraud.
In some cases, military veterans have gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars, some over $1 million dollars, in disability payments from the VA over several decades.
From the Washington Post. --
VA’s $193 billion disability program — one of the biggest line items in the federal budget — has become a rich target for fraudsters, according to a Washington Post investigation. Each year, the agency’s inspector general opens dozens of criminal cases into veterans like Kilpatrick who are suspected of faking injuries or illnesses for money.
But former officials said they suspect those cases represent only a fraction of the fraud that occurs. They said VA has failed to reckon with the full scope of disability fraud — as seen in videos The Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government — and allowed it to become entrenched and endemic at the expense of veterans with legitimate needs.
“The system is vulnerable to manipulation,” said Michael Missal, who served as VA’s inspector general for nearly nine years until January, when President Donald Trump fired him and 16 other independent federal watchdogs. “There’s a high risk that people can either lie about their condition or exaggerate their condition.”
Here is one of the worst cases of disability fraud that I read about. This guy claimed to be paralyzed, but he wasn't. He got away with it for 3 years. --
During visits to Atlanta VA Medical Center, the Iraq War veteran arrived in a wheelchair, claiming multiple sclerosis had paralyzed his arms and legs. By the time he turned 35, the onetime athlete said he could barely move from the neck down, leaving him dependent on others to eat, dress and bathe, according to court records.
Obligated to help a former soldier in need, the Department of Veterans Affairs began paying Kilpatrick $7,900 a month in tax-free disability benefits in 2015, the records show. The federal government also gave him $20,000 for a specially equipped Jeep Cherokee to make it easier for his wife to take him to medical appointments.
The hoax lasted for three years and might have continued indefinitely, if not for a whistleblower who sent VA proof that Kilpatrick was lying: videos of the Army veteran backflipping on a trampoline, prancing around a sports field like a ballerina and swan diving into a playground ball pit.
Here is another egregious case of disability fraud. This guy claimed to be blind, but he wasn't. He got away with it for years. --
VA raised Hoover’s disability rating to 100 percent and declared him permanently unable to work, which boosted his compensation to more than $3,800 a month. The government also enrolled him in blindness rehabilitation courses, training him how to navigate obstacles with a long white cane.
But Hoover had faster ways to get around. In January 2012 — the same month that VA classified him as completely disabled for blindness — he walked into the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to renew his driver’s license, records show.
He passed the eye test with 20/40 vision while wearing corrective lenses. Unaware that VA considered Hoover blind, the state of Florida gave him a new license plus perks in gratitude for his military service, including free disabled veteran plates for his vehicle.
From that point forward, according to the documents, Hoover claimed he was blind when he visited VA for medical appointments. Meanwhile, he cashed his disability checks and bought expensive toys, including an 11-foot boat, a three-wheeled motorcycle and a motorized canoe. Then he bragged on Facebook about how much fun he was having.
www.militarytimes.com
