{"id":83565,"date":"2018-12-19T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=83565"},"modified":"2018-12-18T20:05:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T00:05:57","slug":"navy-veteran-commits-830000-in-disability-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=83565","title":{"rendered":"Navy Veteran Commits $830,000 in Disability Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_83572\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-83572\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-83572\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Getty-Images-500x305.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"305\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Getty-Images-500x305.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Getty-Images-300x183.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Getty-Images-768x468.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Getty-Images.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-83572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">John Cicero Hughes pleaded guilty. Photo from Getty Images.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>John Cicero Hughes inflated his disability in order to maximize what he received from the VA and Social Security.<\/p>\n<p>From the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.armytimes.com\/veterans\/2018\/12\/18\/government-to-seek-830000-from-navy-vet-for-benefits-fraud\/\">Army Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>HELENA, Mont. &#8212; A 46-year-old Columbia Falls man has admitted overstating his disabilities to receive government payments for nine years.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office says it will seek $830,000 in restitution from John Cicero Hughes, a Navy veteran who pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to theft of government money and Social Security disability fraud. Sentencing is set for April 12.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say the VA found Hughes was 100 percent disabled in 2009 after confirming his multiple sclerosis diagnosis. He said he could walk only a few steps, had no feeling in his left arm and leg and couldn&#8217;t care for himself. He received about $8,400 in benefits each month.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators discovered Hughes drove himself to the VA in Helena in January 2018, walked around a grocery store using a cane and used both hands while gambling at a Helena casino.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thanks to AnotherPat for the story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Cicero Hughes inflated his disability in order to maximize what he received from the VA &hellip; <a title=\"Navy Veteran Commits $830,000 in Disability Fraud\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=83565\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Navy Veteran Commits $830,000 in Disability Fraud<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shitbags"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83565","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\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}