![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Gary-Lakis-204x300.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nScotty sends<\/a> us a link to his work on Gary Lakis, who built himself a great story that a lot of people, including the US government swallowed hook, line and sinker. ABC News<\/a> did an article on Lakis fooling folks back in 2004;<\/p>\n But for all his talk, some of his own employees soon became suspicious that Lakis was a phony.<\/p>\n “He was my boss,” said Sweeney. “We had all pretty much heard about his qualifications and I was fairly embarrassed by his performance.”<\/p>\n ABC News has learned there is no record of combat during Lakis’ 10 years of active and reserve duty: no special operations, no Silver Stars, no Bronze Stars, and no Purple Hearts.<\/p>\n A group of Marine veterans questioned the huge number of decorations Lakis wore to a Marine veterans reunion where he even posed for pictures with the then-Marine commandant, Gen. James Jones.<\/p>\n “All he was, was nothing but a dirty liar and a phony. That’s all he turned out to be,” said Dick Sasser, a former Marine veteran who was a member of the Marines’ elite special operations unit called Force Reconaissance. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to the ABC News report, Lakis got a $66 million contract for his security work for the US Government. From The Enterprise Report<\/a>;<\/p>\n Pentagon criminal investigators, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney were all involved in the investigation into Lakis and how SSI obtained such a lucrative deal with such little oversight, but for unknown reasons, Lakis was never charged with a crime. When word of the scheme began to circulate around the special forces community in San Diego, California – where SSI was based – Lakis vanished, and later resurfaced in Australia.<\/p>\n Since then, Lakis has reinvented himself as a gun-for-hire, and T-E-R has confirmed his assignments have taken him to Iraq, Afghanistan and other war torn hotspots.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Rumor Control says that he faked his own death last week<\/del> in 2010, but regardless, we can’t get his records because of the federal investigation. But, you know, Stolen Valor is a victimless crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"