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Fraud busters on rise against fake veterans
Web, federal law help to expose military charlatans

By Russell Working, Tribune staff reporter 
Freelancer Matt Baron contributed to this report

When Douglas E. Robinson showed up in Yorkville saying he was a homeless Vietnam veteran who had lost everything in Hurricane Katrina, the American Legion post took pity on a former comrade in arms, giving him nearly $400 and paying for a few nights' lodging.

But Robinson and his wife's aggressive demands for money and slip-ups in his story led Kendall County sheriff's deputies to investigate. It turned out he had never served in the military, officials allege.

Robinson was lodged in Kendall County Jail last week on charges of stealing government-supported property and fraud in seeking veterans' benefits. The allegations, if true, are part of a rising flood of cases nationwide in which officials and private sleuths -- aided by the Internet and a new federal law -- are exposing hustlers and charlatans who claim benefits or honors that aren't theirs.

Fraud busters, many of them infuriated veterans, could get a boost in their efforts under a bill introduced Wednesday in Congress that would create a publicly searchable database of the nation's top medals, making it easier for police, reporters and officials to verify claims.

The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. John Salazar (D-Colo.), follows up on December's Stolen Valor Act, which expanded federal authority to prosecute those who falsely claim or display military honors.

The crimes are not victimless, say the determined sleuths who spend hours scanning the Internet and filing Freedom of Information Act requests to expose glory hogs. Phonies warp the historical record, scam taxpayers of millions of dollars and in some cases even put troops in the field at risk.

Non-profit investigators

The P.O.W. Network in Skidmore, Mo., which investigates claims to military honors or prisoner status, has seen fraud complaints grow from 22 when it first went online in 1998 to more than 9,000 so far in 2007. Chuck and Mary Schantag, who created the non-profit group, file as many as 24 requests a week for military records.

"The problem is so broad," said Mary Schantag. "They claim everything under the sun. They are from every walk of life. We have seen pastors and ministers and police officers and attorneys -- all of them making the claims. There's nothing sacred anymore."

The cases have continued to mushroom even in recent weeks. In Atlantic City, Mayor Bob Levy stopped showing up at work last week amid a reported federal probe into his false claims about his Vietnam military service.

In Massachusetts, the leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe on Cape Cod, which is seeking to build a billion-dollar casino, stepped aside recently and apologized for lying about his military record. He falsely claimed to have received a Silver Star and five Purple Hearts.

In Seattle, U.S. officials recently announced they were pressing cases against eight men who allegedly faked their military service in conflicts stretching back to World War II. Another four cases are pending. All told, the fraud allegedly cost the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs more than $1.4 million.

In one of those cases, a Tacoma man named Jesse Macbeth was embraced by peace activists eager to discredit the Iraq war after he claimed to have joined other Army Rangers in slaughtering hundreds of unarmed civilians in Iraq. In fact, his service was limited to a few weeks in Army boot camp before he was kicked out, the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle reported.

"That guy made a 40-minute DVD that the anti-war movement was using," said B.G. Burkett, a Texas Vietnam veteran and co-author of "Stolen Valor," a 1998 book that exposed frauds even in the leadership of national veterans groups.

"And he's very graphic about how he killed people, how he tortured them, how he shot the baby, dragged the mother out and blew her brains out -- on and on and on. It's been translated into Arabic and it's now being used as a recruiting tool for suicide bombers."

When he was sentenced to 5 months in federal prison Sept. 21, Macbeth apologized to troops whose reputations he trashed and to the peace groups who embraced his tales.

But even as the Internet allows lies to spread, it also has revolutionized the ability of fact-checkers to expose phonies. Doug Sterner, a Pueblo, Colo., veteran who checks out false claims, has set up a database of 140,000 recipients of the top three levels of military awards.

He has created "Google alerts" that e-mail him whenever a newspaper or Web site mentions the Medal of Honor, Navy Cross or Silver Star, among other topics. And often veterans and others e-mail him stories they find fishy. If he finds fraud, he calls the FBI; it was he who exposed the Massachusetts tribal leader.

Newspaper retracts story

Recently, Sterner helped uncover a case in which the Odon Journal, an Indiana weekly southeast of Terre Haute, reported that a local man had won two Silver Stars in combat in Iraq, only to retract the story this week under the headline "Shame."

"Ten years ago, that story would only have been seen in that little local weekly newspaper," Sterner said.

An Oak Park man named John Dietz was asked to lead the 4th of July parade this year based on a Wednesday Journal newspaper account of repeatedly being wounded in combat. (He also claimed to have played linebacker at the University of Michigan). The paper later had to back down, admitting it had not checked out his claims.

Watchdogs say they have no interest in prosecuting loudmouths who blab about combat heroics over a beer at the corner tavern.

But poseurs have used their fake Silver Stars and Purple Hearts to win the trust of loan officers, earn leniency in criminal sentencing and defer child-care payments, said Mary Schantag of the P.O.W. Network. People forgive a lot to vets who claim they are suffering from post-traumatic stress.

Chester Arthur Stiles, the subject of a nationwide police manhunt after he allegedly videotaped himself raping a 3-year old girl, falsely claimed to be a former Navy SEAL, the Navy Times reported Thursday. In fact, he had spent less than a year in the Navy and wasn't in the elite unit.

In Veterans Affairs, 30 benefit seekers were arrested on charges of fraudulent claims in fiscal 2007, and there are 60 open investigations of fraud, said Jim O'Neill, an assistant inspector general for the department.

Matters of trust

The Yorkville case angered Gary Bullock, commander of American Legion Post 489. In late August, Robinson and his wife allegedly talked Bullock and the post into giving him their own money, along with cash raised to send care packages to troops abroad and to aid needy veterans.

"If a veteran comes to our post and he's homeless and he tells me he doesn't have his discharge papers ... that it got lost or got burnt up in Kansas City or St. Louis or whatever, I'd like to think this guy's telling me the truth," Bullock said.

Burkett, the author, said he always is suspicious when he hears someone boasting of battlefield glory. The real heroes, he said, tend to feel guilty about their medals.

"Your buddies are dead and you're second-guessing yourself: 'I should've fired sooner, I should've thrown the grenade farther,'" Burkett said. "'Why the hell am I getting something?'

"And typically his buddies say, 'Hey, you're doing it for all of us.' He takes the medal, but he takes it in custody. It's not his. It's collective. And he never talks about it."

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rworking@tribune.com

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Chester A. Stiles RELATED STORY: COUNTDOWN TO CAPTURE

Chester Arthur Stiles, the man who allegedly videotaped himself brutally assaulting a 3-year-old girl, was apprehended Monday evening in Henderson.

Henderson police reportedly found Stiles by conducting a routine traffic stop on the white, four-door Buick Century he had reportedly been living in since he went on the run three weeks ago.

Stiles was pulled over for having no license plate at Green Valley Parkway and Sunset Boulevard at approximately 7 p.m.

Stiles reportedly pulled over into a Subway parking lot and handed Henderson Officer Dye a driver's license with a picture that looked nothing like the driver.

Dye, a seven-year veteran with the department, asked Stiles what his Social Security number was, to which Stiles responded he couldn't remember.

At a press conference Monday night, Dye said he found that suspicious.

At that time a second policeman, Officer Mike Gower, pulled in to assist Dye and the two officers began to question the subject.

At that point, the fugitive reportedly told officers who he was, saying he was just tired.

"If you rape a 3-year-old on tape, you have to go on the run," Stiles told authorities.

The FBI and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department also responded to the scene, where Stiles was taken into custody by Metro.

An FBI agent who responded to the scene said Stiles was so nervous he actually vomited in the car while speaking to law enforcement officers.

Stiles appeared disheveled and tired, with much longer hair than he was seen with in the mug shots distributed to the media.

The FBI was searching for Stiles on a fugitive warrant.

He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on 21 charges, including 12 charges of sexual assault, eight charges of lewdness with a child under 14, and one count of attempted sexual assault.

He is being held in isolation, presumably due to the well-known aversion the majority of incarcerated subjects have with pedophiles, alleged as well as convicted.

Stiles was wanted by Metro for an incident that occurred in 2004, involving a 6-year-old girl he allegedly assaulted at the time. He was wanted by the Las Vegas agency for lewdness with a child under the age of 14.

He was officially named a suspect in the most recent case Sept. 28, one week after a nationwide search for the victim, now 7, was found safe with her mother in Las Vegas.

Although he claimed to be a survivalist, Stiles ultimately gave in to authorities with no struggle. His claim to be a former Navy SEAL also proved untrue.

Stiles had reportedly told associates and an ex-girlfriend that he was a former Navy SEAL, but an Oct. 15 edition of "Navy Times" reported that Stiles "spent less than a year in the Navy from 1988 to 1989, but there is no record of him graduating from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training."

Stiles was discharged from the Navy as an engineman fireman recruit, the article reported.

Navy SEALs are a part of the Naval Special Warfare division who are trained in unconventional warfare. SEAL is an acronym that stands for sea, air, and land.

Meanwhile, the man who turned the video over to the Nye County Sheriff's Office, Darren Tuck, is facing a single felony charge of possession of child pornography that was filed by Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett last Friday.

Tuck is scheduled to appear for his arraignment Oct. 22.

Tuck is represented by the Las Vegas law firm of Rasmussen & Kang, LLC.

Chris Rasmussen, Tuck's attorney, said he requested the arraignment take place sooner than it was originally scheduled because Tuck is eager to go to trial.

"We feel strongly that once a jury hears this, the 12 people will find him innocent," Rasmussen said.

Tuck has been incarcerated in the Nye County Detention Center since Sept. 30 for violating his parole on a previous charge of failure to pay child support.

Tuck appeared in Fifth District Court Monday for that charge but was not released or given a bail amount.

A hearing to decide whether or not his probation will be revoked is scheduled for Oct. 29.