The case of literal stolen valor

A fraudulent Medal of Honor was seized by the FBI in 1996 and is pictured on the right, next to a legitimate Medal of Honor. (Photo courtesy of the FBI)

Military.com reminds us of this literal stolen valor case from the 90s. In it, the only official supplier of the Medal of Honor (and a majority of other US military decorations) was selling illicit, unauthorized versions of the Medal of Honor. That’s a paddlin’.

From Military.com;

With each letter from a disgusted veteran, William Bassler grew more furious.

Then a federal district court judge in New Jersey, Bassler listened intently as those veterans described how a federal government contractor that sold 300 fraudulent Medals of Honor in the early 1990s had degraded their military service in an egregious example of stolen valor. When Bassler sentenced the defendants, he did not hold back.

“True Medal of Honor recipients and their families have the right to be outraged …,” Bassler said, according to a New York Times article. “My only regret is that I’m limited by the guidelines.”

In December 1996, Bassler imposed an $80,000 fine — the highest possible penalty — on H.L.I. Lordship Industries of Long Island, New York, which pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count in a plea deal. Lordship, which admitted to selling unauthorized versions of the United States’ highest military award for valor from 1991 to 1994, also was ordered to pay the government $22,500 in restitution, an amount that represented the cost of the fake Medals of Honor the company sold for $75 apiece. Finally, Bassler placed Lordship on probation for five years.

The fallout continued a few weeks later when the Pentagon announced it would stop doing business with the disgraced company, which was manufacturing roughly 60% of U.S. military medals and reaping $9 million per year in business from the government at the time. Ultimately, Lordship was barred from bidding on any government contracts for 15 years, resulting in a projected $155 million loss in earnings.

Some, both inside and outside the military community, insisted those penalties were not nearly enough.

“Most of these impostors are men who have never seen combat,” FBI special agent Tom Cottone Jr. told the Pueblo Chieftain, a newspaper in Colorado, in 2004. “They need to feel important, to be someone, and pretending to be a medal recipient is a way to do that. They like to claim it’s a victimless crime, but they are stealing the honor from men who gave their lives for this country and from any veteran who served.”

Cottone should know. In 1995, posing as collectors interested in pursuing nothing more than a good deal, he and another FBI agent followed a tip regarding illegal medals to a military memorabilia show in New Jersey. They purchased two Medals of Honor, an Army version for $510 and an Air Force version for $485, then arrested the seller, who described himself as a military veteran. (There are three versions of the Medal of Honor; the Navy medal is the other.)

The story continues at the source.

Category: Stolen Valor