{"id":92966,"date":"2019-11-26T08:02:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T12:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=92966"},"modified":"2019-11-26T09:45:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T13:45:46","slug":"fake-seal-charged-with-defrauding-va-out-of-more-than-300k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=92966","title":{"rendered":"Fake SEAL Charged with Defrauding VA Out of More Than $300K"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Several newspapers are reporting that Richard Meleski allegedly faked his service as a Navy SEAL, falsely claimed he served in Beirut, claimed he was both a POW and Silver Star recipient to defraud the VA out of more than $300,000.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

A 58-year-old Bucks County man was indicted for falsely claiming he was a Navy SEAL and prisoner of war \u2014 he never served a day in the military \u2014 in order to steal more than $300,000 in government benefits, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain announced Monday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

Richard Meleski of Chalfont was arrested and charged in federal court with health-care fraud, mail fraud, stolen valor, and related offenses in connection with his alleged scheme to obtain health-care benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs and disability benefits from the Social Security Administration.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u201c18 hr hostile takeover. Became POW, during this tour. Beaten, shot, head injury, tortured. Hospitalized in Germany for injuries sustained. Crushed hand. Shrapnel,\u201d Meleski wrote, claiming he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of serving as a Navy SEAL in Beirut during the 1980s, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

Meleski claimed he injured his left knee jumping out of a window carrying a dead SEAL on his back, prosecutors allege.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That underscores the meaning of never leave a buddy behind.<\/p>\n

They further wrote:<\/p>\n

If convicted on all counts, Meleski would face 68 years in prison, $302,121.21 in restitution, and a $2,250,000 fine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

ABC27.com<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n

U.S. Attorney William McSwain said Meleski never served a single day in the U.S. military but received healthcare before deserving military service members.<\/p>\n

McSwain said Meleski filed for compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder he claimed to have suffered during an armed conflict in Beirut in which he had supposedly rescued injured teammates.<\/p>\n

In his application for disability benefits for PTSD, Meleski also falsely claimed he had been awarded the Silver Star for his heroic actions.<\/p>\n

He also submitted another application for compensation in which he used the obituaries of actual Navy SEALs, claiming that he had served alongside them, McSwain said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that answers the question of ‘How low can you go?’<\/p>\n

CBSLocal<\/a> in Philadelphia writes:<\/p>\n

Meleski has been charged with health care fraud, mail fraud, stolen valor, creating fraudulent military discharge papers, and making false statements.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Pennsylvania’s DOJ Office released a statement<\/a> on the matter:<\/p>\n

The case was investigated by Department of Veterans Affairs-Office of the Inspector General and Social Security Administration-Office of the Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Megan Curran.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several newspapers are reporting that Richard Meleski allegedly faked his service as a Navy SEAL, falsely … Fake SEAL Charged with Defrauding VA Out of More Than $300K<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":92973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[393,339,336,462],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-navyposer","category-phony-seal","category-pow","category-silver-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92966","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\/663"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92983,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92966\/revisions\/92983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}