Category: Phony soldiers

Our buddy Bratdog sends us a link to the UK’s Daily Mail which tells the story of Michael Brain who pretended to be a wounded Royal Marine veteran to cheat women out of their money.

The fraudster, of no fixed address but previously from Plympton, Devon, admitted nine offences of fraud and five of theft at Plymouth Crown Court.

He was jailed for four years and given an indefinite Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from dating and gambling websites.

Brain was also barred from wearing any military uniform or medals unless by dint of service.

[…]

Brain’s offences took place between 2012 and 2015, netting him more than £40,000.

One of his victims, a 75-year-old Cornish woman, loaned him £20,055 to pay various bills after meeting through the website Badoo.

According to the article, he had been convicted and jailed for more than a year for similar behavior recently, but it was a good way to make money, I guess. The judge in that case named him the “cash card Casanova”.

He claimed that his disability was due to military sexual trauma – I’m sure his wish will come true in prison.

Someone sent us their work on this Kelly Clay Withers fellow. He was on the old POW Network website, but I guess that he figures now that it’s gone, he can go back to pretending that he’s an Army captain in a “very unique team, highly classified.” He claims that he was wounded in Somalia, that he was the sole survivor of a helicopter crash in Iraq during the war against terror.

He was indeed in the Army – he began his service as 77F petroleum supply specialist;

It looks like he deployed to Desert Storm, he completed the Air Assault course, and did a rotation in the Sinai with the Multinational Force and Observers.

He did pretty well at that, but then he went into the Reserves and trained as an MP;

He got promoted to Staff Sergeant, until this happened;

According to folks, he was in Iraq as a contracted firefighter with Wackenhut- but he tells people he was a contracted sniper. Currently, he tries to stay ahead of the law and the ladies that he left behind. He turns up at the local motorcycle events on his motorcycle with disabled veteran plates and his tough-guy motorcyclist nick-name “Reaper” recounting tales of his derring-do as a Delta Force operator, you know, even though his last successful military job was as a petroleum specialist in the pay grade of E-4;

We first wrote about Carlos Felipe Luna-Gonzalez nearly two years ago when he was arrested in a sting operation while he was pretending to be a wounded SEAL officer in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. A local gun shop owner pretended to present him with a rifle in appreciation for his non-existent service. The local police arrested him for theft when he accepted the rifle. Then Luna fled to Puerto Rico. He was extradited last year.

Today we get the news that he was sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to theft, failure to appear and bail jumping.

The 31-year-old Luna-Gonzalez, who’s an ex-seaman apprentice, was free on bond when he fled to Puerto Rico. He was later extradited.

Luna-Gonzalez received 16 months in state jail for theft, plus three years in prison for failure to appear and bail jumping.

From KVUE;

An investigation found Gonzalez was given an early general discharge from the Navy as an enlisted seaman apprentice, and had never been a commissioned officer or a SEAL, nor had he earned a purple heart or faced active combat.

It was a tip from the public to Texas Ranger Anthony Bradford, an Army veteran
with a son in the Navy, that influenced the sting operation. It helped that Luna presented an altered DD214.

He wasn’t prosecuted for Stolen Valor, but it was his Stolen Valor that brought him to the attention of local law enforcement. A lesson for the prosecutors out there.

We got the news yesterday that Robert Brooks was sentenced in Davenport, Iowa. We’ve been following the case for more than a year, before he was arrested, when we got a FOIA on him and his amazing collection of awards.

Here’s his FOIA;

He was charged with stealing valor;

According to WQAD, this is what was wrong with those records;

According to the sentencing documents, Brooks admitted to falsely reporting he had received the following awards and decorations:

Silver Star Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, a Purple Heart with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, and a Combat Infantry Badge. Brooks also admitted that his records falsely included the following: Distinguished Flying Cross with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters, Bronze Star Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Airmen Medal with a 57, an Oak Leaf Cluster and “V,” Army Commendation Medal with “V,” Navy Good Conduct, Navy Pistol Expert, Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with star, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign w/ Bar, Republic of Vietnam Honor 1st Class, Army Reserve Components Achievement Medal, Navy Unit Commendation, Meritorious Unit Commendation, Presidential Unit Citation, (Army) Presidential Unit Citation, (Army) Meritorious Unit Citation, (Army) Valorous Unit Citation, Republic of Vietnam Combat Action Ribbon, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Republic of Vietnam Air Service, Vietnam Air Cross Gallantry w/ Silver Wings, Army Overseas Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Army NCO Proficiency Development, Naval Parachutist Badge, Naval Aviator Badge, Navy Aircrew Member Wings, Army Parachutist Badge, Republic of Vietnam Parachutist Badge, and Pathfinder Badge.

Brooks had also made up a story about being shot down in Vietnam and becoming a Prisoner of War which wasn’t true.

It looks like Brooks added all of the extraneous BS while he was hand-carrying his record from station-to-station, but veterans in his local veterans’ group started asking questions which led to an investigation. Things got hot when the National Personnel Records Center got involved and discovered that their records were wrong.

At first, Brooks denied that he’d made it all up, but when he couldn’t produce any proof for his awards, it all came tumbling down.

From Quad City Times;

A Vietnam War veteran from Davenport who admitted that he purchased numerous military awards without authorization was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation and a $5,000 fine.

“I’m sorry for my part in all this,” Robert E. Brooks Jr. said in a short statement in U.S. District Court, Davenport.

Brooks, 70, said he “didn’t mean to harm” other veterans or other veterans before Judge Stephanie Rose handed down the sentence.

He pleaded guilty on March 28 to purchasing military awards and decorations without authorization, a misdemeanor that carries a potential sentence of up to a year in prison.

Per the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of no more than five years’ probation.

His case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, so some prosecutors ain’t playin’, finally.

Our sources tell us that the Veterans’ Affairs Office of the Inspector General have opened a case on him, too.

These guy think that if they can get phony information on their DD214s, they’re golden. This case proves that’s not true.

Eric Robert Purdy was paroled from the Utah State Prison system in 2013 after serving time on a theft by deception beef according to Deseret News. Even though he’s unemployed, he somehow manages to drive a 2017 Toyota Camry as well as pay for his daily expenses. Parole officials discovered that he had approached a veteran charity claiming to be a retired Navy SEAL.

Agents checked his laptop computer and found child pR0n – he had coached a girl’s soccer team earlier this year.

Upon closer inspection, the parole officer also found “four military certificates that appeared to be forged; as they indicated various achievements within the United States Marines, and the United States Navy Special Forces, under the rank of captain; which is concerning because Mr. Purdy was never in the Marines or the Navy, but instead in the Army for one year before being discharged for legal reasons in 1998,” the warrant states.

Purdy was given an “other than honorable” discharge, according to the affidavit.

An inspection of his two cell phones found that he had sent text messages identifying himself as a US Marshal. Purdy had his parole revoked and he’s cooling his heels in jail.

Friday afternoon a little after 4PM, I was served with this document which notified me that I had a hearing date on Monday (today) at 9AM in Hernando County Florida. I appeared telephonically.

Benandanti vs. Lilyea

Apparently Carmine Annunziata aka Luciano Benandanti thinks that I’m stalking him from my wheelchair. Of course, I’m not. I merely put publicly available information in one convenient place for folks who are interested in the subject. Luciano Benandanti was once known as Carmine Annunziata who pretended to be an Army major which is how we became interested in him years ago. Well, it came to our attention that he changed his name and founded a Wiccan church so we wrote about him to warn people that a felon had changed his name. He called it stalking. He told the judge that he started getting death threats and that strange automobiles were parked in front of his church recently and he tried to blame me for it.

The judge couldn’t get there from here. Benandanti tried to tell the judge that the West Virginia State Police told him that I was a violent person and that I had sexual assault charges against me. That’s not true. I wouldn’t have a top secret security clearance or a concealed weapon permit if it was true. I’m sure the police hadn’t told him that. He also tried to tie us to pro-Christian websites that I’ve never heard of before, you know, trying to play the religious card.

The judge dismissed the case without prejudice because there was no evidence that I was stalking Mr. Benandanti, nor could the judge find where Florida courts had jurisdiction over me.

The judge told him that he could refile in West Virginia where the courts had jurisdiction. My WV lawyer was in the room during the telephone hearing, so he’s ready for anything that would happen here in Mineral County.

The judge also warned me that if he found out that I was engaged in the activities that Mr. Benandanti claimed that he was going to come down on me with both feet. I’m not, so I told him “Yes, sir”.

But, see, that’s why I don’t allow addresses and phone numbers on this blog, so I can’t be accused of sending my minions out to assault people. I also edit out comments that I find of people who want to commit violence against these guys. Like I said, these blog posts are not a call-to-action. They are to provide information to folks who might be interested in subjects like Mr. Benandanti here. Anyway, that’s where I’ve been this morning. How’s your day going?

Someone sent us their work on this fellow, John Gerald Fulton in Tucson, Arizona where he’s a firearm instructor and the CEO of SFOD-1 Security Consultants;

He claims to be Special Forces and a Delta Force operator (notice the “Special Forces” tattoo in the picture at the top of the page). He loves those tats because they give him creds;

I mean, what kind of jerk would get a tattoo if he hadn’t earned the badges, right?

Seven years of service as a wire systems installer and as an Air Traffic controller makes him a Delta Force Operator. No Basic Airborne Course, no Special Forces training, no Ranger training.

Earlier this month, we talked about Eric Nelson who is a member of the Aurora, Colorado School Board and he ran for election to the State Legislature in Colorado’s 42d District. For some stupid reason, he posted the above picture on his campaign website which touched off a furor among Colorado veterans with good reasons.

Last week, he was censured by the school board in a vote of 5-2;

Nelson and board member Barbara Yamrick voted against the resolution. The board had no discussion before voting.

Nelson’s exaggerated resume came to light during his campaign for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives. He was handily defeated in the June Democratic primary.

The Board had asked him to resign, but, well, you know phonies.

Here’s our FOIA for his military records;

Eight weeks at Lackland and back on the street. No awards, no nuthin’. He spent more time in the Delayed Entry Program waiting for a spot in the Air Force for him than he spent on active duty.

Now, his academic credentials are being questioned, too. I’d get him away from the kids ASAP.