{"id":173481,"date":"2025-09-01T07:02:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=173481"},"modified":"2025-09-01T07:02:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:02:46","slug":"va-falsified-claims-faked-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=173481","title":{"rendered":"VA- Falsified Claims, Faked Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nGregory P. Heimann Jr<\/em><\/p>\n

Veteran stole $244K in disability, then faked drowning death in Maine, feds say<\/h3>\n

Story by Julia Marnin<\/p>\n

A Maine man accused of stealing more than $244,000 in disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs faked his drowning death after authorities confronted him about the fraud, according to federal officials and court filings.<\/p>\n

Gregory P. Heimann Jr., 51, told the VA in 2023 that he had used a wheelchair since 2004 and could not walk or stand, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

But that was not the case, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

When Heimann was interviewed in February 2024, a federal agent with the VA’s Office of Inspector General revealed there was evidence showing Heimann “walking, driving, fighting, and shopping,” according to an affidavit written by the agent.<\/p>\n

Two months later, Heimann left his Forest City Township home by the Canadian border, headed to a nearby river and vanished on April 19, 2024, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.<\/p>\n

Investigators initially thought Heimann drowned, leading to a dayslong search, the agency said in an Aug. 25 news release. Ten days after his disappearance, the VA’s Office of Inspector General issued a warrant for his arrest.<\/p>\n

“After further investigation, though it was made to look like a possible drowning, it was determined that Heimann was in fact not deceased and his disappearance was ruled suspicious,” the U.S. Marshals Service said.<\/p>\n

Investigators continued to search for Heimann, leading to his discovery and arrest at an Amtrak train station in La Plata, Missouri, about a 165-mile drive northeast from Kansas City, on Aug. 21, the agency announced.<\/p>\n

Heimann will be returned to Maine, where he will face a charge of making false statements to the government, following his indictment in October 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine said in an Aug. 25 news release.
\n~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
\nHeimann served in the U.S. Army from November 1993 through January 1997, according to court documents. Then, he served in the U.S. Army National Guard from April 1997 through May 2005.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MSN<\/a><\/p>\n

The 40% disability he already was receiving just wasn’t sufficient apparently, so he upped his game. His loss of mobility claims were called into question when he was observed moving freely about and engaging in a couple violent altercations. After questioning he faked a tragic canoe accident and disappeared for a year until his arrest in Missouri. Now he’s looking to lose all that and a 5-20 year sentence in a Federal prison. Well played, asshole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gregory P. Heimann Jr Veteran stole $244K in disability, then faked drowning death in Maine, feds … VA- Falsified Claims, Faked Death<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":173482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[185,652,86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-the-stupid-is-strong","category-veteran-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/657"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/173482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}