Keith Hudson pleads guilty to VA fraud

70-year-old Keith Hudson pleaded guilty of defrauding the Department of Veterans’ Affairs of $197,237 in benefits after falsely claiming to be a military veteran of combat in Vietnam according to the Department of Justice.

Court documents presented during the hearing established that in 2015, Mr. Hudson applied to the VA in Charleston for benefits. He used a falsified form from the Department of Defense, called a DD-214, (“Report of Separation from Active Duty”) which is a Department of Defense form given to members of the military who are separating from service. In the form, he said that was a veteran of the war in Vietnam. He represented that he was in the Navy and saw combat as a medic, suffering wounds and other trauma. He claimed that he served from August 1, 1967 through October 31, 1971 and said that he received two Purple Hearts.

The investigation conducted by the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (OIG) showed that this DD-214 was forged and false. For instance, Mr. Hudson’s rank was listed as HN and E-4 (in the United States Navy, HN is actually the equivalent of E-3). In the awards section, it stated that he received a Combat Medic Badge. However, this is an award which is only given for service in the United States Army. It also did not list the proper citation for a Purple Heart. And the form stated Mr. Hudson received the Fleet Marine Force Medal with Marine Device. There is no such medal. It also had a stamp from the Alaska State Defense Force, which is suspicious as that group is not an official military organization, being comprised of volunteers. Additionally, the service branches do not permit their records to be combined with or loaned to other entities, including National Guard units. And, the typeset of the Social Security number on the DD-214 was different from the rest of the document.

In fact, Mr. Hudson never was in the military.

I guess Mr. Hudson wasn’t aware that the government keeps records;

Additionally, employment records for him from 1967 through 1971 established that he worked at a variety of jobs in New York and in Maine. In two of them, he applied for employment and was fingerprinted. These fingerprints were still on file and matched his prints. As such, he was in the United States during the years 1967 through 1971. Therefore, Mr. Hudson was never in the United States Navy nor did he ever see combat in Vietnam.

The investigation also showed that he had previously been prosecuted for the same scheme using the same DD-214 form in 2005 in Connecticut, where he had been placed in a pretrial diversionary program.

United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon claims that VA fraud is on the rise;

“VA fraud is on the increase and so we are grateful for the work of the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General for their investigative work on the case.”

Statistics bear out what the United States Attorney said. Between April of 2017 and October of 2017 alone, the VA Office of Investigations made 80 arrests, and recovered $2.9 million in restitution, fines and penalties relating to things like VA health-care benefits fraud. This is more than twice the amount recovered in the same period a decade ago.

The growth of our Stolen Valor archives also bears this out.

Thanks to SJ for the tip.

Category: Phony soldiers, Valor Vultures