Dennis Paulsen; disability fraud claims disability
Andy11M sends us a link to the report on Dennis Paulsen who was convicted of disability fraud earlier this year. His scam netted him about $1.6 million over more than 25 years from the VA and Social Security, according to prosecutors involved with his case. After two years in the Navy, they diagnosed him with multiple sclerosis (MS) and he got an early discharge as well as the cash perks that go along with being 100% disabled.
Prosecutors said that the only time he’d appear to be disabled was when he was on his way to a VA appointment. The rest of his time he spent playing sports, even bungee jumping. he researched the symptoms on line so he’d know what to tell the doctors;
Paulsen even competed in a Marine Corps “Tough Mudder” race, but he argues that it wasn’t easy for him.
“I struggled through that. I struggled, and I let people know that,” Paulsen said. “Every job I try I looked healthy enough to do. But I’d go out to work at Lawn Doctor and try to open up the fertilizer bags and things would slip out of the bags. But here I am, I look healthy. We wouldn’t even be discussing this if I went to Afghanistan or Iraq and got my legs blown off and had to wear prosthetics and then you see prosthetics, people with prosthetics competing [at the Invictus Games].”
He continued, “They get looked at as inspiring. But I get looked at like I’m a fraud because you can’t see the disease?”
When asked why the military owes him a lifetime of benefits when he’s fit enough to do all the activities he was photographed doing, Paulsen said it’s “because I’m service-connected.”
He said he feels he didn’t have a fair trial because he didn’t have a jury of his peers.
“Nobody on that jury has MS,” Paulsen said.
Paulsen was sentenced to 41 months in jail and to pay back his $1.6 million tab along with a fine. He still claims that he’s disabled, despite the evidence against him.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I know next to nothing about MS (or how VA works) but how is that a service connected disability?
Well that is a fucking amazing question. What in the Service made him have MS? Of course the answer is nothing.
To be fair we don’t really know enough about MS to determine if or how it might be service related. Scumbags like Paulsen take advantage of that, but I’d rather the VA air on the side of caution than repeat their mistakes with mesothelioma and Agent Orange.
if you were diagnosed with it in the service, it is a service related disability. For me it was a brain infection in korea, for a friend of mine(has since passed away) it was breast cancer. For neither of us, it was not technically do to service, but we just happened to be in the military when it happened.
One thing is for sure don’t look for help pro or con in Grundy County Iowa!The VA controls the zone!
http://www.thegrundyregister.com/content/does-corwins-appointment-create-conflict-interest
How does one catch MS in a service connected manner? Just wonderin’…
I believe the requirement is “caused by or exacerbated by” military service.
You can drive a bus through that statement.
While I’ll admit that I’m not a doctor, how does MS become a service connected disability? Granted, you may come down w/MS while in the service, but how did your service cause the MS?
I once worked on a claim where the claimant stated that it was due to McDonalds being on post that he became obese, which led to his health problems. Fortunately the VA saw through this load…
There’s more honesty in that McDonalds claim than in Paulsen’s MS claim. Unless MS stands for Massive Shithead.
Great minds think alike
i believe if one gets diagnosed while in the service, then it is connected, period. I know a few n’er do well assholes that got tired of life and went back into their records to eventually get the benefits because of said “injuries.” I despise them. And I have tried to turn them in…but like anything, it most likely got the F-13.
MS occurs at a substantially higher rate among veterans than the general population – high enough that the linkage between service and the disease appears to be statistically significant. Why this linkage exists is not known.
As a result, MS is what is called a “presumptive condition”. If any symptom can be documented to have appeared within 7 years after discharge, even if those symptoms were misdiagnosed at the time as being something else, the condition can considered by the VA to be service-connected. (There have been efforts to extend this period, but it’s my understanding that to date they’ve not been successful. There may be a longer period for those with documented service in the Persian Gulf region.)
It’s my understanding that MS is also (a) very often misdiagnosed initially, and (b) often takes many years to become seriously disabling after first symptoms appear. I’m not a medical type, so I could be wrong about that. Perhaps IDC SARC or one of our other med types can confirm or refute.
I don’t begrudge anyone who actually has MS VA benefits. However, this guy was “diagnosed” while still on active duty. It certainly appears to me that this guy managed to scam his way into a “diagnosis” for a condition he simply doesn’t have. And for that: Faq’heem.
As much as this pains me, the MS could be service connected IF he was deployed on the ground during DS. Goggle Bob Wolz. He was my best friend during my last tour in Germany and has been able to prove to Congress, with medical proof, that his MS was a result of the exposure of the burning of chemical weapons after DS.
However, I see no proof that inmate Paulson can make this claim.
http://cdmrp.army.mil/cwg/stories/2011/wolz_profile.shtml
Thanks for sharing that NBCguy. I know of some Nat Guard guys that found a basement full aging cannisters of nerve gas in Iraq but once they started blistering up, it was sealed off and guys in white haz mat suits disposed of and cleaned it up overnight and my friends were told it did not happen. I don’t know the status currently but if exposure to the same materials may contribute to MS, these guys should probably be screened. I am going to forward this to them if it’s OK with you.
The other thing for me is just what was he exposed to that may have been a contributing factor in his “disability”? It appears nothing.
Please do. Bob has fought long and hard for this to be taken seriously and it’s slowly paying off. There is actual medical proof with studies that point to some serious illnesses brought on by exposure to various items during and after DS. There’s even evidence that the PB pills that everyone had to take caused some issues.
Pass along that link – it’s old but I’m sure with a little google-fu more info is available.
FWIW cyclo-sarin is a form of G-Series nerve agent. That’s one of the chemicals Bob was exposed to and quite possible your NG guys. Don’t let the system blow these guys off – the medical info is out there and reputable.
FUCK YOU you LYING SHIT STAIN CHEAT.
I hope you rot in HELL and die trying to pay off the restitution and get repeatedly raped during your 41 month stay.
I had no clue what MS was either but I know how to Google. Not saying he is or isn’t faking, just sharing info on MS.
Copied from WebMD:
What Is Multiple Sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a long-lasting disease that can affect your brain, spinal cord, and the optic nerves in your eyes. It can cause problems with vision, balance, muscle control, and other basic body functions.
The effects are often different for everyone who has the disease. Some people have mild symptoms and don’t need treatment. Others will have trouble getting around and doing daily tasks.
MS happens when your immune system attacks a fatty material called myelin, which wraps around your nerve fibers to protect them. Without this outer shell, your nerves become damaged. Scar tissue may form.
The damage means your brain can’t send signals through your body correctly. Your nerves also don’t work as they should to help you move and feel. As a result, you may have symptoms like:
Trouble walking
Feeling tired
Muscle weakness or spasms
Blurred or double vision
Numbness and tingling
Sexual problems
Poor bladder or bowel control
Pain
Depression
Problems focusing or remembering
he’s a fraud. no doubt about it. read the abc report.
Trouble walking
Feeling tired
Muscle weakness or spasms
Blurred or double vision
Numbness and tingling
Sexual problems
Poor bladder or bowel control
Pain
Depression
Problems focusing or remembering
Oh, I’ve had a few cases of that. Need to add “smelling like a stripper” and “possession of a pocket full of $1 bills” to the list.
Honestly, watch the video of this d-bag. It will burn you up that there are those with real, proven disabilities working their a$$es off to make sure paperwork is squared away in order to receive a check that will pay minimum bills. This guys is damn near doing cartwheels to within 200 yards of the benefits office, then hops in a wheel chair.
Mother fucking, cock sucking liar…. dude is dong everything he can to convince people he’s sick. He’s full of shit…
41 months isn’t enough time in jail…
I would give a million dollars to have his legs
Word.
What Skippy said. I can’t see how Paulsen was able to run Tough Mudder contests 25 years after being diagnosed with MS. I would love to just be able to walk, let alone run.
Lower than whatever is lower than pondscum.
People don’t understand what they have until it’s gone this guy is a clown he has legs that work. I would give a million bucks just to say mine did as well as his
PH2: That would be whale shit.
Some days me, too
Oh Shit! I have all of those symptoms. I guess I won’t die of lung cancer after all. I better get to the doctor asap. And here they have been telling me that i am just getting old.
Paulsen should have said he had a concussion and didn’t remember having MS.
41 months of cockmeat sammiches and tubesteak (with generous sides of nutbutter and manmayo) for DENNIS PAULSEN. Hope he enjoys the “company” of Thor, Julio, Bubba and Mr. “Tiny” while in the poundhimintheass prison…
Every time he opens his mouth, smegma pours out. Shitbag!
yeah this one is kind of iffy. I had a brain infection in korea and it is most definitely service connected. Of course I spent months in a hospital and recuperating, so my case was much more cut and dry. I dunno the full story behind this guy, was he hospitalized??? I had abnormal eeg’s and brain scans. Did he have clinical proof of his condition like brain scans?? or was his diagnosis purely on self reported symptoms??I have had people fake some of my symptom(as a joke) and I must say they did a heck of a job. They did a better job of manifesting my symptoms than I do!!! and I actually had the disease!!!
I think the main thing that is damning against him, is that his symptoms would conveniently appear as he was on his way to the VA and would suddenly disappear when he thought no one was looking. Obviously he at the very least was conveniently exaggerating his symptoms, if he had any to begin with
HOOOAH….
AMAZING THAT THEY FINALLY DO SOMETHING AGAINST ONE OF THESE SHITSTAINS
For those trying to give this clown the benefit of the doubt, go read the abc report. No Doubt in my mind now, he is a total fraud. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/man-convicted-disability-fraud-claims-hes-disabled/story?id=41930250
Well, lack of a moral compass is a disability.
Notice he says (paraphrase) “I wish I had not been ‘diagnosed’ with MS.” Not “I wish I didn’t ‘have’ MS.”
To me, that suggests had he not been diagnosed, he would not have tried to game the system, and would not have been sentenced to prison. Well, 3+ years in the warm embraces of Bubba, Thor and Tiny, with an occasioned visit from Julio, will give him a new outlook on life. The outlook from his knees.
Know a veteran who is a barber. Stands on his feet 0800-1600, six days a week. He is also SC for MS, % unknown to me. When I saw him at the VA where I worked, he always walked with assistance of braces and/or crutches. While barbering, he does so w/o any assistance. I asked him about this and he said he had good days and bad days. I asked how the bad days seem to be VA appointment days but he is otherwise able to stand 8 hours a days, six days a week. He told me again the good-day-bad-day line. He’s no longer my barber but he still cuts hair. I’m retired from VA, but occasionally still see him there, always with braces. Seems legit.
This guy? Watched the video and found him arragont, entitled and somewhat hostile. Not at all sympathetic. Watch it and see all the stuff he could do on a ‘good’ day. I’m not buying what I consider to be a self-serving line of bull.
Jonn: How about considering having TWO selections each year? You can do the usual posers, those so dear to our heart. Also, do you have enough numbers to have a ‘VA Scammers’ category? I’m thinking this guy might be in the running, IMO.
Cocksucker.
Another addition to Bubba & Thor’s harem, ENJOY IT, BITCH!!!
Don’t forget Tiny. Tiny has to get him some, too. Also, Julio and the rest of the Mexican Mafia need some as well. I’m thinking this guy will be traded for a pack of smokes within a month of arrival. This is my facial expression when I don’t much care.
Damn straight… it’s “equal opportunity” in the hole… or so I’ve been told.
“He said he feels he didn’t have a fair trial because he didn’t have a jury of his peers.”
Well, that’s true. His peers were already in the joint when he was being tried. At least he’s with them now.
Exactly. Those who are his peer on a social scale, those who are, per the court, the moral equivalent of pond scum, are in the warm embrace of Bubba, Thor and Tiny. Now, if by ‘peer’ he means those with actual MS, those who struggle with normal activities, the court seems to suggest he may not have MS, that he has been milking a flawed system for years. IF the jury was of 12 with true MS, I doubt they would have found much sympathy for him. I’m also thinking there are many videos not shown which demonstrate the selective absence of his symptoms. The numbers are not in his favor. Jeez … More than 25 years. As far as paying back the bucks, Bwhaaaa. The VA will put him on a $30 a month payment plan, with an allowance to miss up to six payments a year due to ‘unforeseen’ circumstances. In his case, I hope those circumstances involve an inability to work due to a size 14 boot lodged up his ass. I hope he loses his VA eligibility due to this, but I believe that is wishful thinking. He could have taken this scam to his grave if not for stupidity. That seems to be what catches so many of these people. “Oh, I’ll put this video of me bull riding on youtube. It’s all good. No problem Nobody will notice.”
Its next to impossible to get a 100% rating from the VA due to the way they start doing “Percentanges of Percentatages” after the 50% mark.
Most of the vets I know who are drawing the 100% rate get it because they are 100% Unemployable.
These means that regardless of what their actually VA disability rating is, they cannot work do to physical or mental disability.
If this cocksmoker is running tough mudders and all that other shit hes perfectly capable of swinging a hammer, selling insurance or processing documents.
Fuck him.
After watching the video it’s clear this guy is a piece of shit. He should be taken back to that mud race and have his head stuck in the mud until he drowns. In the interview he started off with the grump cat face before talking. That was the first clue to his fakery.
This guy has the ‘woe is me’ and ‘I’m a victim’ look on his face.
Paulsen was sentenced to 41 months in jail and to pay back his $1.6 million tab along with a fine.
The other day in connection with the Chalice Renee Zeitner verdict (http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=67867) I mentioned that I would have preferred a lesser time in jail and full restitution rather than what Zeitner got.
It is interesting to me to note that in this case, Paulsen has to pay back the money he fraudulently obtained while Zeitner did not. Maybe it is because of the “victim” is the Social Security Administration, a government agency and the people Zeitner defrauded were private parties.
Instead of looking out for charities, citizens and government agencies, the Feds only seem to be looking to be concerned about getting money back into the Federal coffers and the heck with the concept of making private charities and citizens whole.
It could also be that because a portion of the money returned from Paulson will go directly to the SSA and the rest goes back into the general fund. With the charities and private citizens, the government wouldn’t get a piece of the recovery.
I am thrilled to see that Paulson is going to go to jail and have to repay the money he stole.
If I were king of the world, all criminals convicted of theft, fraud, etc, would have the same type of sentence – restitution and jail time.
There is a distinction to be made between forfeiture and restitution, as well as between federal and state laws. In Paulsen’s case, forfeiture occurred, the seizing of assets in advance of sentencing in order to recoup, in whole or part, the takings from his crimes. In Zeitner’s case, forfeiture was not a factor and any assets she may have and any money she may earn in prison or after her release are subject to a civil action her victims may take. Whether justice was served in Zeitner’s receiving a lengthy prison sentence is a personal view, dependent on part on whether sees the goal of imprisonment to be correctional or punitive. No one will get their money back from her evil, any more than her late-term abortion which killed a viable life can be reversed. I prefer that she suffer every day of her miserable life and that it ends in prison, perhaps the day before she is scheduled to be released.
Any disease or condition that didn’t exist prior to enlistment is considered service connected unless there was misconduct.
MS however is not diagnosed by patient testimony or a diagnosis of exclusion because it is a structural pathology, so dunno wtf was going on there. Tests and physical exams…a conspicuous eye lesion called an MLF lesion along with multiple CNS plaques visualized on scans makes it fairly easy and painless to diagnoses MS.
Mrs. SP4/HMC was recently thought to have MS or similar disease process. A quick MRI showed absolutely no abnormality. Thank you Jesus.
I’m glad you got good news and I hope she is doing well.
Thanks, Brother. We’ve been sweating the load for a time. She has symptoms consistent with MS and other brain-related processes, but there was no plaque or other criteria for a dx of MS or any of the other bad stuff. Pretty much nothing abnormal was seen. Doc thought issues might be secondary to cardiac, so she also got an EKG, holter and echo. Waiting for those results. Praying for the best but prepared for less than best. She saw me through 45 years, some of those years a lesser woman would not have tolerated. I’m in for the long haul. She is the best to have happened to me.
Hmmm..anyone over 50, you have to rule out CV pathology if there are CNS S/S. It’s good that they’re checking that. Of course, there are many other things that can cause CNS S/S…pulmonary, endocrine, renal, but CV is something that should be checked without delay. Good that she has an HMC to help as an advocate. Keep ’em on track.
????
Thanks, Skippy. We appreciate that.
Article says he was diagnosed in the early 1990s, IDC SARC. Were the methods and tests used to diagnose MS the same then as they are today?
I’m thinking this guy got the proverbial “golden ticket” misdiagnosis based on 25-year-old tests and protocols that have been improved greatly since then – and eventually parleyed that into a 100% disability from the VA via embellishment. He appears to have been riding the gravy train ever since his diagnosis.
( $1.6M / 25 ) = $64k average in benefits annually – and he’s still fit enough to complete the “Tough Mudder” race. $64k a year in bennies is a damn nice train.
How do we find out who finally acted on one of these tips? With all the evidence we have on Bernath, maybe we need to find out this individual’s name and location and get the proof to him, I know how much I would love to see the same news story with the name of Bernath instead
Dickless Danni-boi use to parade his dumb ass around on crutches and claimed “Agent Orange” exposure. I’d lay some money down that he’s been screwing over the system for years and for a Hell of lot more than Paulsen did.
The thing is there really is no telling how much disability cock-breath is drawing, or from whom.
Unless he is drawing 100% based on unemployabilty He can get a fairly high % from the VA ( even 100%) and still be able to get around.
Even with SS or SSDI, as long as he claims what he makes, and they adjust his benefits he can do some type of work.
As far as I can tell that motherfucker hasn’t turned a dime since he popped on the radar from his work as a “lawer”, If anything he’s went into the red.
There is no telling what kind of pensions he is drawing, or what income his wife has coming in.
I believe I read on ESE that between him and his wife they get around 6500 a month..I’m now on a mission to find that, then will have to figure out how to post it here