Military.com – A Minnesota man has been convicted of lying about serving in the military, defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $146,287 in a brazen case of stolen valor.
Mikhail R. Wicker pieced together a whale of a story, claiming he had served in combat in Iraq, even going so far as stating he had earned a Purple Heart as a member of the Marine Corps.
According to prosecutors in the case, Wicker forged a combat record packed with false information. He claimed he had graduated from sniper school, was deployed to Iraq in 2005 with Lima Company, survived a stint as a prisoner of war, and earned the prestigious Purple Heart for being wounded in combat.
“Wicker claimed that after he was released from capture, he recovered from his wounds, and the Marine Corps sent him to sniper school. In reality, the civilian had been hurt in a car accident.”
However, a federal investigation uncovered what Wicker was really doing in ’05 – living as a civilian in Michigan.
Wicker’s scheme was elaborate. He falsified DD-214 documents detailing his “service record,” produced images of fake medals, and even hoodwinked actual Marines on social media, all to obtain disability benefits from VA, along with funding from the GI Bill.
Dr. Brent M. Eastwood, a retired Army infantry officer, writing about the case for the National Security Journal, said,
“His conviction for wire and mail fraud highlights how stolen valor exploits an already overburdened disability system. These false hijinks usually make veterans angry but do not involve any serious crime. But this case is among the most egregious I have ever seen.”
Wicker’s trial lasted a week, and a jury convicted him on Nov. 21. He will receive sentencing from a federal judge at a later date …
