Posted on Sep 8, 2016
Man who posed as Navy vet gets prison term for military b | MilitaryTimes
4.66K
18
9
6
6
0
TITLE: Man who posed as Navy vet gets prison term for military benefits fraud
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri man who admits he passed himself off as a Navy veteran and fraudulently received more than $234,000 in benefits has been sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.
Sixty-three-year-old Eric D. Smith of Independence also was ordered Thursday in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, to repay $234,461. That restitution includes payments to additional agencies victimized by Smith when he engaged in similar fraud in Maryland, Georgia and Florida.
Smith pleaded guilty in February in Missouri to one count each of violating the False Claims Act and of student loan fraud.
He admitted that he assumed the identity of a Navy veteran from October 2012 through April 2014, along the way fraudulently obtaining a Veterans Affairs identification card and VA health care benefits.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri man who admits he passed himself off as a Navy veteran and fraudulently received more than $234,000 in benefits has been sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.
Sixty-three-year-old Eric D. Smith of Independence also was ordered Thursday in federal court in Kansas City, Missouri, to repay $234,461. That restitution includes payments to additional agencies victimized by Smith when he engaged in similar fraud in Maryland, Georgia and Florida.
Smith pleaded guilty in February in Missouri to one count each of violating the False Claims Act and of student loan fraud.
He admitted that he assumed the identity of a Navy veteran from October 2012 through April 2014, along the way fraudulently obtaining a Veterans Affairs identification card and VA health care benefits.
Man who posed as Navy vet gets prison term for military b | MilitaryTimes
Posted from militarytimes.com
Crime
Benefits
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 9
Good. Finally some justice. However, what surprises me the most is that he received VA health care. Hopefully the system can crack down against this type of fraud.
(3)
(0)
2
2
0
This news irritates me for two primary reasons SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL.
1st Sixty-three-year-old Eric D. Smith of Independence, Missouri fraudulently received more than $234,000 in VA health care benefits.
2nd I am a veteran who has been waiting a long time to receive my disability benefits. First the VA balked at paying my disability for a few years until Congress intervened in God's timing. The VBA is still slower than molasses in winter in working through my VAMC Patient Advocate submitted claims.
1st Sixty-three-year-old Eric D. Smith of Independence, Missouri fraudulently received more than $234,000 in VA health care benefits.
2nd I am a veteran who has been waiting a long time to receive my disability benefits. First the VA balked at paying my disability for a few years until Congress intervened in God's timing. The VBA is still slower than molasses in winter in working through my VAMC Patient Advocate submitted claims.
(2)
(0)
2
2
0
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google