Army Veteran Fakes Blindness and Defrauds VA – Now Gets Prison

According to the Marine Corps Times and several other media outlets, John Paul Cook is

Army veteran who faked blindness for nearly $1M is going to prison
By Jonathan Lehrfeld | Jul 25, 06:48 PM

A former soldier who defrauded Veterans Affairs out of nearly $1 million by pretending to have a service-connected disability was sentenced in court to less than a year in prison, according to the Department of Justice.

John Paul Cook, 58, from Marshall, North Carolina, received approximately $978,138 in disability payments from the VA between 1987–2017 due to his fake blindness, the DoJ said.

Despite his claims of being visually impaired, Cook repeatedly passed vision screening tests for his driver’s license, purchased and registered over 30 vehicles he routinely drove, and participated as a leader with the Boy Scouts of America in activities requiring eyesight, the DoJ added.

Federal district court judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. sentenced Cook to 10 months in prison, five of which will be served in home confinement, according to the DoJ. Additionally, Cook was ordered to serve three years of supervised release and to pay more than $930,000 back to the VA.

Court documents show that Cook enlisted in the Army in November 1985. The following year, after sustaining an injury, he argued that a preexisting eye condition had grown worse.

After a medical evaluation in 1987, Cook was discharged and began receiving VA disability benefits, the DoJ said. His compensation increased over the next 30 years and by 2005, when the VA wrongly declared Cook legally blind, his compensation reached the maximum rate.

He also received additional monetary benefits to remodel his home, the DoJ said.

Other twists on the story can be found at the Department of Justice, Charlotte Observer and Coffee or Die.

From Coffee or Die:

In a sentencing memorandum, Cook’s public defense attorney, Emily M. Jones, revealed that the ex-soldier is a church pastor and the married father of two teenage sons.

Although federal sentencing guidelines called for Cook to spend 24 to 30 months behind bars, she urged the judge to penalize him with only five years of probation, including eight months spent on home detention.

“He knows right from wrong, and tries to practice what he preaches,” Jones wrote. “He understands that he made tremendous errors in his conduct in this case, and wants to demonstrate that he is someone who values doing the right thing.”

The judge went with a tougher sentence.

This was all we could find for Cook regarding military service, but this was just a quick sweep.

DoD Manpower Data Center / SCRA

This answers your age-old question of “How come we don’t see any cooks on This Ain’t Hell / Valor Guardians?”   Well, sort of answers, anyway.

Category: Veteran Health Care