FORMER VETERANS AFFAIRS REGIONAL OFFICE CLAIMS SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE SENTENCED IN WIRE FRAUD CASE

Kenneth R. Atkins, Special Agent in Charge, Southeast Region, Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, (VA-OIG), announced today that William Stanley "Rusty" Latta, a Veteran and former Veterans Affairs Regional Office employee, was sentenced to serve six months of monitored home confinement and two years probation. This sentence was the result of Latta entering a guilty plea to an Information charging him with Aiding and Abetting and Wire Fraud. These charges were the result of a scheme devised by Latta wherein he obtained the medical information of a Veteran suffering from cancer and edited the information to show it was his own condition. Latta then submitted that information to the Department of Veterans Affairs causing his own claim to be re-evaluated. As a result of these actions by Latta, his permanent disability rating was upgraded to a 100% level. During the investigation, it was determined that Latta was previously rated for a gunshot wound he claimed he received in Vietnam. This rating was also found to have been granted based on fictitious information supplied by Latta. This scheme and actions by Latta were discovered by employees at the Veterans Affairs Regional Office, Nashville, TN, who then reported the incidents to the Office of Inspector General. Latta was also required to pay the cost of his home detention monitoring and he has made restitution in the amount of $42,976.67 to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
 
Assistant United States Attorney Byron M. Jones, Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville, TN, prosecuted the case for the government.