Chutzpah? Yep. PTSD? Not So Much.
Yeah, PTSD is real. And some people really are screwed up bigtime from it.
But I have my doubts whether all PTSD claims are on the up-an-up. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out a large fraction are BS, either totally or in part.
Why? Well, if the multiple doubtful cases previously presented here at TAH weren’t enough – here’s yet another reason.
Short version: a guy named Michael Pecka from Fairport, NY, claimed to suffer from “PTSD”. He claimed it was due to “witnessing” and “helping investigate” two suicides while serving in Kuwait during 2004-2005. The experience supposedly left Pecka “traumatized,” and he filed disability claims with the VA twice on that basis, in 2011 and 2014.
The VA granted Pecka compensation for his “PTSD” – to the tune of $3,000+ monthly. He eventually collected about $92,000 in tax-free VA disability compensation.
Yeah, the words in quotes above are in quotes for a reason. When the VA OIG investigated Pecka’s case in detail, they found he didn’t witness either suicide or help with any investigations. Hell, he wasn’t even in the same country at the time one of the suicides occurred (the suicide in question occurred IVO Fort Drum while Pecka was deployed to Kuwait).
Oh, and did I mention that Pecka had the gall to file the first of his claims with the VA while in prison on unrelated bank fraud charges? Color me “shocked, shocked” to find out that a convicted fraudster would attempt yet another fraud.
Pecka recently pleaded guilty to making a false claim in connection with his VA disability application. He’s now facing a maximum possible sentence of 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He’s to be sentenced in Jan 2019.
You can read more about the case in this article. Personally, I hope the judge gives this lying a-hole the absolute max sentence (and fine) allowed. I also hope the judge orders Pecka to pay restitution.
We give the VA grief when they screw up. But here, the VA figured out that they were dealing with a Pecka-head sh!tbag – and nailed him to the wall.
Kudos, VA OIG. Hopefully, this is just a start. Perhaps perusing this site’s archives would be helpful in the way of leads.
—–
Note: hat tip to frequent commenter AnotherPat for originally identifying the case in this comment to another article.
Category: Crime, Shitbags, Veterans Issues
Surprised the VA actually went after fraud.
Thanks to the cash cow called ‘the tax payer’ … the VA usually can’t be bothered.
Hope this becomes a new permanent trend.
PTSD is real, and it affects people in diff ways.
For me it is nightmares, visions, short time memory loss, and headaches.
Though the headaches were due to TBI (traumatic brain injury), the doctor said PTSD is also a contributor to headaches.
To me the big issue is the memory loss, the limited ability to retain new information. Because every else you can deal with and keep rocking, but memory loss does negatively affect my performance as an NCO.
I have to write down everything and seriously keep a daily calendar.
Thank G-d for smartphones.
If I don’t write shit down, it never happened.
Ambien gets me through the worst of the nightmare nights (which are rare and aren’t usually about what happened over there but rather what didn’t/could have).
And yet for all that, I still make it through my day without defrauding anyone.
I was taking Ambien prescribed by the VA for several months until I realized that it wasn’t helping and the side effects weren’t worth it.
About 6 months ago I was prescribed with 3 mg of melatonin. I did some research and upped it to 20 mg taken during the day and an additional 3 mg before bedtime. It helped.
I’ve been told by my awesome Social Worker that insomnia does affect long and short-term memory. I was so bothered by my memory problems that I had an exam for early onset for Alzheimer’s. I was that concerned.
I’ve gone from 2-3 hours and sometimes no sleep to occasional 4-5 hours sleep. What a difference!
Yeah, I thought I was just getting old or it was the medication for other injuries. I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t have it nearly as bad as others. There was an interesting article by a BBC reporter that was embedded with a unit in Iraq, and looked them up recently to see how they are doing. Really paints the story of what Veterans go through. I will see if I can find it.
Here is the story. Made me realize I wasn’t the only one.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Iraq_legacy_of_war
JR,
I would be very interested in reading that article when you find it.
Thanks much!
For both me or.y and sleep issues…have your thyroid and potassium levels checked. If both come back “in range”, ask if a very low dose of thyroid would keep you “in range”, but on the higher end. Same for potassium.
Too much of either can lead to heart problems, and rather quickly, so get the blood tests. Too little of either cause fatigue, muscle weakness, disorientation, memory problems and sleep disturbances.
Long term, unresolved or complicated grief can both mimic and exacerbate PTSD symptoms, and they are only beginning to address the grief that so often accompanies the trauma, so be your own advocate.
Even Pecka-wood’s fraud took years to establish. Why? I don’t know. If you tell me that two soldiers committed suicide in your presence, that’s one too many for me not to be suspicious. If you tell me where the suicides occurred and when, as well as what unit you were with, maybe it will take me a couple on months to verify. He filed his bullshit in 2011 and again in 2014 and the records showed that he was 6000 miles away when one of the two suicides occurred–in New York! Still, Pecka-wood’s lies on paper had to be renewed, I guess, so an under cover agent had him retell his lies and commit them to paper in 2018. Cripes. I’ll hold my applause on this. The more common fraud is someone claiming PTSD who actually was present when a traumatic event occurred and cashes in on it by exaggerating his psychic injury and its resultant manifestations. And once that check starts arriving monthly, well, hell, why ruin a good thing? I don’t have answers. I’m not qualified to make the determinations. The problem is, apparently neither is the VA.
My guess – and this is only a guess – is that during the period 2009-2016 PTSD became “en vogue”. Hell, even the various BCMRs appear to have been instructed to give the benefit of the doubt to vets who committed serial misconduct decades ago. And from my perspective, the VA certainly seems to have become more lenient in awarding disability compensation for PTSD claims during the last decade or so. Finally, VSO reps seem to know this – and are always “ready to help vets get what they deserve from the VA”.
As you know better than I: once a legal entitlement is awarded, the government has to “dot the I’s and cross the T’s” in order to take it away. Frankly, I’m surprised it only took about 3 years (assuming the award was initially made in 2015 after his 2014 claim and investigation began nearly immediately) to (1) investigate the case, (2) determine the guy was a lying bastard, (3) bring the case to trial, and (4) get a guilty plea – even if they had the guy dead to rights. The Federal courts are clogged enough (and defense attorneys delay enough) that 3 years total seems kinda quick to me.
According to the press release from the USAG, he filed his initial claim from prison (!) in 2011 and it resulted in a $3,167 monthly award. The claim could not have been made in person and was filed about 7 years after the suicides he never saw. I have little doubt that he had a great deal of spare time to concoct his scheme, to research it, and prevail. I just don’t get it. From my perspective, this is a case that screamed “Wait!” to anyone in the VA who was half awake.
The numbers don’t work out for that scenario, 2/17 AC. If he’d have started receiving $3k monthly in 2011, those benefits would have been paid for several years. And I don’t think VA benefits are payable when someone’s incarcerated (see AnotherPat’s comment below). $92k only works out to about 29 months at that rate.
My guess is that he was initially denied in 2011 (possibly due to his being incarcerated or lack of documentation), completed his 37mo sentence for bank fraud, then relocated and reapplied in that new location. Or maybe he got a low initial award, and applied for a re-look after prison – possibly with some BS about “unable to hold a job for the past 3 years” (technically true, but due to incarceration vice service-related). Either would result in an award sometime around 2015 – and if those new benefits were for $3k monthly, retroactive to the date of his new application, and continued for a couple of years, that would add up to $92k.
I think that’s what happened: filed application from prison in 2011, initial denial (or low rating) in 2011 or 2012, followed by reapplication in 2014 – with high benefits awarded after 2nd application but only retroactive to the date he got out of prison. He might have even had help from a VSO in making that 2nd application – and I’d guess that VSO probably didn’t even know he’d been in prison (Farmington is only about 20 mi SE of Rochester, while Elmira is about 90 mi SSE of Rochester).
Gotcha. Makes sense.
I do agree with the above, that PTSD is real and definitely comes in different forms. The problem is when you try to compare one with the other. I can’t understand how he was awarded $3,000/month! For me after 24+ years PTSD was the least of my problems but what raised my disability the most. The screwed up back, feet, and shoulder make daily life much more difficult. I guess the world views it as a little suffering on my part is not worth much, but when I take it out on my co-workers every once in a while by yelling at their stupidity, it keeps me from being a productive member of society and I need to be paid to go away.
Kudos to the VA IG for investigating this thoroughly and prosecuting the fraudster!
JRJ: Pecka-wood may have received Total Disability Individual Unemployability (TDIU) compensation. The program allows VA to pay certain Veterans disability compensation at the 100% rate, even though VA has not rated their service-connected disabilities at the total level.
Eligibility Requirements:
You must have at least one service connected disability rated at least at 60%, OR
two or more service connected disabilities at least one disability ratable at 40 percent or more with a combined rating of 70 percent or more.
You must be unable to maintain substantially gainful employment as a result of service-connected disabilities (marginal employment, such as odd jobs, is not considered substantial gainful employment for VA purposes).
Just google PTSD lawyers and you’ll see how big a growth industry this program has become in the last decade.
The folks that need help with their problems have difficulty getting help, in part, because of shitbirds like this. These dickwads are not only stealing from the taxpayers, they are stealing from out brothers and sisters that need help. Good on the VA getting this one. Wonder how many others like him are out there? Bet Wilted Willy knows of at least one more.
Shitbirds like this, and the stigma Lame Stream Media paints on vets in general, and PTSD sufferers in particular, all work against us.
Those who really do need help are sometimes reluctant to ask for it, and its partly because they don’t want to be lumped in with these jerks.
100%.
It’s gotten so that I’m now a little sceptical straight away of someone claiming ptsd. I know I shouldn’t be, but there ya go.
He should appeal.
Suicide by proxy is real.
Probably even a Medicare code for it.
Don’t just “be all you can be”, be all you want to be.
This guy is a real gem….sucking at the taxpayer teat through fraud becomes a win/win for him.
Live free by riding the system…live free by residing in the system…
Michael Pecka: Greedy Duck.
Here is the 2010 FBI Press release about he and wife defrauding Bank of America and the New York State Unemployment Fund:
“Husband and Wife Sentenced to Federal Prison for Bank Fraud”
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/buffalo/press-releases/2010/bffo090910.htm
“…Michael and Nicole Pecka, both 25, of Elmira, NY, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Charles J. Siragusa for their role in a scheme to defraud the Bank of America and the New York State Unemployment Assistance Fund. Michael Pecka was sentenced to 37 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $359,000 in restitution to the New York State Unemployment Assistance Fund. His wife Nicole was sentenced to 12 months in prison, five years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $80,000 in restitution to the New York State Unemployment Assistance Fund…Mr. and Mrs. Pecka organized and participated in a scheme to defraud Bank of America by making unauthorized withdrawals from a New York State Unemployment Assistance Fund account. They used account number and routing code information from the Unemployment Assistance account to open and fund online accounts with E*Trade and other online banking companies. The couple received debit cards from these new accounts and then made cash withdrawals and other purchases to fund a lavish lifestyle. This included limo rides to New York City, hotels, theater tickets, and a trip to Italy. Michael Pecka also spent over $1,300 accessing various adult website.”
Given Pecka’s history, he will probably do some money scheming again down the road.
Pure pond scum, the both of them. Good on the VA OIG for discovering this but, please, should a scumbag be able to rip off the taxpayers to the tune of $90K before it is discovered? There just must be mechanism in place up front to keep this for happening. Having worked for the VA for 11 years, I can guarandamntee you there are probably about as many PTSD scammers, in one degree or another, than there are true recipients with PTSD. It’s just another version of headaches, low back pain, whatever. They will put him on the VA Liberal Repayment Plan, which is $25 per month, with the option of skipping payments should events prevent him from making payment. The event will probably be an inability to get a job b/c he is scum. Pure bullshit. Hoping he is very popular in prison.