The $16m phony vet
Greg sends us a link to a New York Daily News story of a phony vet exercsing his right to free speech by scamming the government;
A Manhattan federal jury said John Anthony Raymond White and his firm, Mitsubishi Construction Corp., bid on contracts the VA awarded under the Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Program.
White at times claimed he hurt his back while a Navy ROTC; other times he said he was in Special Forces.
The jury concluded he was always a fraud – and he faces up to 75 years in jail and $3.7 million in fines when sentenced.
He won several contracts, including a $5.7 million job in 2009 to build a flood wall around the Veterans Administration Medical Center on E. 23rd St. in Manhattan.
“Those contracts were supposed to go to real veterans,” prosecutor Virgil Bragg said.
Eventually, the VA got suspicious and discovered White has a rap sheet for forgery and grand larceny.
White ultimately told the VA he was not a vet.
April 21st, 2011 at 9:43 am
“Stolen valor is a victimless crime.”
Keep repeating until you believe it.
April 21st, 2011 at 10:01 am
I’m actually fine with this. The small business administration is a joke. Forcing the govt to buy from “small businesses” which mainly result in large businesses just being brokered by these entities that meet some sba requirement is nothing but adding costs to what the government buys. The more examples of why having set asides for small businesses, women/minority/veteran owned ends up causing issues, the sooner we can hope to get rid of those requirements and let actual manufacturers compete
April 21st, 2011 at 10:03 am
What’s incredible is that no one at the VA verified this guy’s status from the start! We’re not talking about some phony vet getting over on a hayseed newspaper reporter with sea stories. We’re talking about the VA who should already have his records. He punked the clueless VA and received “several contracts” with them?
Someone at VA needs to lose their job.
April 21st, 2011 at 10:22 am
I don’t think its the VA but rather the Small business Admin that verifies people and signs them up in the system. Its like an owner putting his company in his wifes name to be listed as a women owned business, or large companies that “buy” 49% of a business owned by a minority so they can qualify for government contracts while they remain a huge entity (worthington steel). I’d say half of all compaies that’s are “small business” are a fraud
April 21st, 2011 at 10:48 am
VTWoody: I think you’re right. I stand corrected.
April 21st, 2011 at 10:51 am
That’s the same VA that consistently treats people with no military service for military related disabilities.
April 22nd, 2011 at 10:14 am
I bought a transmisson shop in the late ’80s and was told by a rep in the college town the shop was in that getting a VA loan was a shoo-in. So I filled out my paperwork, mailed it in, and the VA mailed me back and basically told me, el tuffo shitto. Twelve year active duty vet wasn’t no big thing.
March 23rd, 2013 at 1:58 am
If your spouce owes a state or federal secured or tax debt before you got married you can file a injured spouce form along with your return then they will take only half of your return this happened to me via a student loan from my wife before we were married they kept my whole return then i sent in this form and a week or so later they sent back half of the return or just simply file married filing seperate that will stop it you might still get half of what you would if filing married filing joint because of a greater tax break