Michael “Mike” Torres, Phony War Veteran

| May 20, 2020

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Michael “Mike” Torres is being sued for $96,583 in wages and $6,986 in expenses. He was also given 61 million Seafarer stock that Seafarer wants back. (MALCOLM DENEMARK/FLORIDA TODAY)

Mike Torres talked about his background. He was an Army Ranger and cryptocurrency millionaire. He was a professor, a systems engineer, and a coder. Not willing to quit at being a decorated veteran, or just focus on being a professor, Mike Torres claimed to have created satellite communications at well-known laboratories. A fraction of his work was classified.

Without Seafarer Exploration’s ability to spot a phony war veteran just from his claims, they hired “Dr. Michael ‘Mike’ Torres”. He was in combat. He earned a doctorate and was involved with laboratory work. He was just the motivated well-rounded type of engineer needed on their treasure hunting team.

Since this story was referred to us, you guys could already guess whether his military claims are true or not. When one of his claims was discovered to be false, Seafarer dived deeper into Michael Torres’s claims. They discovered that his other claims were false.

From the Tampa Bay Times:

It was all fake, Kyle Kennedy, CEO of Seafarer Exploration told the Tampa Bay Times. “This guy can spout this stuff off like no tomorrow,” he said. “Absolutely none of it was true, but unless you’re an engineer, you’d never know that.”

Last week, Seafarer filed a lawsuit in Hillsborough County demanding Torres pay back $96,583 in wages plus $6,986 charged to a company expense account. They also want him to return his 61 million shares of Seafarer stock.

The lawsuit accuses Torres, 37, of presenting a fraudulent resume that included two tours of duty in Afghanistan, a long list of medals and multiple degrees including a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Citadel and a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from Duke University.

The lawsuit claims Torres flunked out of the Citadel with a 1.3 GPA, and Duke does not even offer a degree in aeronautical engineering. It also claims Torres lied about being an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contacted by the Tampa Bay Times, Torres said it was his boss Kennedy who’d padded his resume to make Seafarer look good, but that he’d gone along with it. He said he never claimed to be an Army veteran or have a doctorate. He was simply an engineer hired to do a job, but was never given the proper resources to do it.

“They want to discredit me because it somehow serves whatever scam they’re pulling,” Torres said, claiming he’d soon file his own countersuit against Seafarer.

Torres said he really did earn a degree from the Citadel and served in the Air Force. Contacted by the Tampa Bay Times, the Citadel said Torres left in 2003 without graduating. Military records show he was forced out of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps that same year for poor academics. Duke University did not respond to a request for comment.

Considering that Michael Torres cast a wide net with his phony tales, he got busted from another kind of professional. Scientists that Seafarer hired described Michael Torres as not knowing what he was talking about.

The Tampa Bay Times has more information here. This article is a good read as far as phony veteran claims go. He went all out. Michael Torres provided a similar excuse in response to being called out for his fake claims… “Someone else” made those claims. Mike Torres just went along with it. Thanks to LC for the link.

Thanks to Bim, we have this news segment from ABC 4 News on an underwater find involving a Confederate ship. In both the article and video, Michael Torres, labeled as “Dr.”, talks about the find. Notice the medals in the background.

Michael Torres with medals in background. He’s labeled as having a doctorate. (ABC 4 News)

Investors Hangout published the text of the lawsuit. It provides the details of their argument of what Michael Torres did.

From Investors Hangout:

29. Further, Torres representations to Seafarer, its board of directors, consultants, and advisors, as well as shareholders on many occasions, including in his resume, that he was a veteran of the United States Military, representing that Torres was a military intelligence specialist with the United States Army, in Military Occupation Specialty 35G, being a Geospace Imagery Intelligence Analyst, for the period of 2003 through 2008 was false.

30. As a matter of fact, upon a public information request, Seafarer was able to ascertain through the National Personnel Military Records Center, that Torres was disenrolled from Air Force ROTC within two years of enrollment for failure to maintain military standards, and having a GPA of 1.2 at the Citadel. Torres had no other military career or involvement at all according to such records.

31. All of Torres’s representations of military experience were false. All of his representations of education were false as well. Torres completely misled all of Seafarer, its management, its directors, shareholders and the public about every material representation he had made about himself.

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Category: Phony soldiers, Stolen Valor, Valor Vultures

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Ret_25X

wow…a victim of the nefarious actions of others who made up academic, military, and job history claims in order to puff up HIS resume…while his own weak, soft, simp, azz just went along.

This dude is amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing!

What a twunt.

Hack Stone

Must have been the same guys who posted on the All Points Logistics website that Phil Monkress was a US Navy SEAL. He can’t control what other people may be told.

Thunderstixx

Turd burglar…
And how in the hell did I end up with swimmers ear???
Now I have to go to the VA today… Oh groovy, just what I want to do…..

OldManchu

Serial masturbator and bunghole treasure hunter. He left that off his resume.

Ret_25X

Yes, a butt nugget connoisseur, completely dedicated to finding the lost excrement of the raiders of the lost ark.

Also, he has butt hairs on his face….or is that a beard?

A Proud Infidel®™

Turd Burglar as well.

USAF RET

butt pirate

The Stranger

Penny farmer

Anonymous

rump ranger

A Proud Infidel®™

Skin Flute Aficionado.

Green Thumb

Manhole Inspector

26Limabeans

At least he wears a condom on his tongue.

Anonymous

Although it would’ve been more respectable if he got a Purple Heart for catching shrap while whackin’ it in the porta potty during a surprise mortar attack in Iraq…

OldManchu

Oh hell.

I wonder if that ever happened in Iraq. Or any combat theater ever?

I won’t say a word about the Panama Invasion because I know nothing.

26Limabeans

Da Nang 1970. Maybe JUL or AUG.
Airman wounded in the barracks latrine
from rocket that went through the roof.

Just word of mouth at the time.
I was ten miles away doing my thing.

19D3OR4 - Smitty

A guy in my platoon got his Combat Action Badge in Iraq when two rounds went through the porta-john he was in. He wasn’t hit luckily.

Green Thumb

That would be the Air Force ass clown on the Brawny paper towels a while back.

And he made up being wounded.

A mortar hits at 0300 right smack in the middle of the FOB. Drills you in the can. No one else.

And no one comes around for 10 min? Yeah.

Right.

5th/77th FA

Welcome to some more Google Fame, you lying, embellishing POS Michael “Mike” Torres. How’s that shit sammich you made for yourself taste? Oh, that’s right, I forgot…Mikey likes it. And like any other 5 year old, blame someone else on the playground for what you did. Before this is all over, you may wish a grenade had of blown up on you.

Need to check with SiL. He’s an attorney in Tampa. His firm may be handling some of that work for Seafarer. He had alluded to a treasure hunt case that he couldn’t discuss just yet a while back.

John Seabee

Tampa connection. Wonder if he was coached by Bernath???

AW1Ed

LC must still be pissed off that the last article he sent me was paired with the same one from Poetrooper. Oil and water.
*grin*
Glad he sent this to tbs for posting, at any rate. Thanks, LC.

LC

Oh, I’ve got a voodoo doll in your image for that fiasco, AW1Ed. But this was just a case where I posted this in the comments of the open-thread yesterday and thebesig ran with it. 😉

FuzeVT

So typically, one spins lies about things his audience knows little about. If I said to a bunch of aeronautical engineers that I was also an engineer and had. . .uh. . . created GPS satellites, yeah that’s it, I would expect I would get called out fairly quickly in that I have bachelor of fine art in Photography (a strange one, I know). I’m not sure how you think you are going to fake the funk in a business full of engineers, when you aren’t one, for very long.

M48DAT

I’m pretty sure they teach treasure hunting during Mountain Phase.

rgr769

Yes, during the Mountain Phase we rappelled into a cave in search of the lost Confederate gold. We were also looking for the Ark of the Covenant, but we were deterred by a nest of pit vipers. And this is a “no shit” true story.

Green Thumb

Mount Yonah sucked ass.

Comm Center Rat

“Indy, you have no time. If you still want the Ark, it is being loaded onto a truck for Cairo.” ~ Sallah

Thunderstixx

I’m the only US Army Certified Rope Installation instructor here so nothing gets by without my approval !!!
I hereby approve the installation of enough rope for this bunghole surfing, shitstick, crapweasel to hang himself with !!!
Any questions call me at 1-900-mikeysbutt, (entrance in rear)…..

Combat Historian

Butt Nugget couldn’t even pass Air Science 101 in basic AirRahtSee before being kicked to the curb…pathetic douche rag…

Mick

With that leather flight jacket that he’s sporting in the photo posted above, it looks like ol’ Mikey here must have also served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force during WW2.

Tally-Ho!

AW1Ed

Fleece lined flight jackets are de rigueur for Tampa.

What an asshat.

26Limabeans

I’ll bet the beard is also fake.

Ret_25X

that’s no beard…it’s butt hairs stuck to his face from working two holes behind the dumpster at the truck stop…

SFC D

It’s a gorilla mask.

Don’t google that. 😉

ChipNASA

You know when you say “Don’t Google that”…
“Somebody” is gonna.
I couldn’t decide which one I liked more.
😀

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66

Yes, I’m the great Pretender, pretending that your still around. platters 1955 on Mercury. He may have watched Tony Curtis as the Great Imposter to learn his trade.

26Limabeans
A Proud Infidel®™

Cocksucker.

Hack Stone

It’s 140 miles from the Seafarer Exploration Office on Tampa to 190 South Sykes Creek Parkway In Merritt Island Florida. Will All Points Logistics be providing Mike Torres a relocation fee?

USAFRetired

Well in my 2020 Alumni Directory in the alphabetical listings, there are six folks surname Torres listed none named Mike and no Electrical Engineers.

In looking at the Corps of Cadets class listings between 1998 and 2005 there is a Michael David listed address unknown.

If this individual dropped out in 2003, he would not have received his ring much less his diploma. He could offer up some modicum of proof by showing his ring. They are a lot harder toforgr than a piece of paper.

Jay

You can’t even get mad at this dude because his story is just so rediculious – brain probabaly fried on drugs. I can definitely tell you he is not a Citadel Grad-NO RING, NO DIPLOMA. From my experience of being a former cadet there and a graduate; he is one of the many bums around Charleston who flunked out and hangs around Charleston telling his lies to current cadets on the weekends and wowing them with his fake war stories downtown to get a free beer. Saw it my JR and SR year there.
The Company who hired him are just as much idiots as he is because there are so many resources “online” to check his creditability.

Green Thumb

All-Points Logistics, my man. All-Points Logistics.

Green Thumb

Nothing against that really.

I mean, he was probably on shore leave from the Nautilus just blowing off a little steam.

Captain Nemo will be pushing of soon….

Bim

On ABC4s website, they mention ‘Dr. Torres’ finding civil war artifacts in Charleston harbor just last month… if you watch the video, he’s sitting in front of a wall display with many medals. Seems like he is still pulling his pranks. I wonder how that will go down when he ‘sues Seafarer for lying’?

https://abcnews4.com/news/local/explorers-find-civil-war-era-artifacts-in-charleston-photos

Combat Historian

Poser douche rag probably purchased a bunch of Civil War coins and minie balls from the local antebellum antique emporium to proclaim his new “archaeological find”…

Mason

We’re gonna have a hard time ID’ing most of those. Looks like he bought every commemorative the company was willing to sell him.

Mason

That reporter is hard to listen to. Her cadence is off. “He’s also a Stratford High…..School graduate.” She can’t read ahead a word on the teleprompter apparently.

Martinjmpr

Hey, Torres: Indiana Jones called, he wants his hat back.

Seriously, while Torres comes across as a marginally better-than-average scam artist, the ones who look like the dumbasses here are the people who hired him. Whoever is in charge of hiring needs to have a plaque placed at eye level that reads “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.”

Instead they hired this guy based on the line of BS he was throwing out, even though virtually all of his claims could have been disproven through the kind of background check that is usually done before someone is hired to work at a day care center.

Makes you wonder how many of the company’s other employees are scam artists, too.

For that matter, a company who’s business is “treasure hunting” seems like something that is tailor-made for scam artists. How many “treasure hunting” companies have been busted for defrauding their investors? I think maybe ALL of them?

What’s that saying, “you can scam an honest man?” I think that applies here.

Roh-Dog

Turd.

Green Thumb

Torres the Terrible Turd.

The Stranger

Torres the Terrible Turd Tickles Taint…

Let’s keep the alliteration going!

Roh-Dog

Tenaciously Tackles Trannies

Green Thumb

To Tongue their Two-Holes.

A Proud Infidel®™

Transsexual Taint Tickler.

26Limabeans

testicle tickler

jarhead

With his impeccable credentials he’s a shoe-in for the Jeremy Dewitte Full Combat Funeral Escort Service for dead people who are being chased to the cemetery. Always some vigilante out there attempting to drive up next to a hearse just to get a final shotgun blast at the deceased. Employment Candidates with a PHD go to the head of the application line. Jeremy would love to have one of his escort riders dressed in a surgical operating gown with the word Doctor on his flack jacket.

HMCS(FMF) ret

I wonder if he knows another SV nutsack that we are familiar with that use to run around with a pee H dee from a phony school?

Cheese Eater McBlobfish

Dr. Torres is one of my associates in Chevalier and Associates. He is my underwater crime scene lead.

Green Thumb

I see him flipping Phildoburgers at the All-Points Logistics taxpayer-funded chow hall.

jarhead

As I wrote thebesig on the Random Open Thread story, please pardon me for being such a dumbass and putting such a serious comment on the wrong story. Rather than on the R O T story, what I meant to say belonged here on this story. Fairly important just the same.

Alzheimer

I can confirm that, by definition the Royal Air Force operate in the air, we have never issued our leathers to submerged rock submarine drivers… Some of our jockeys are prone to exaggeration, normally saying something like “flying inverted with nothing on the HUD but the makers name”.

Cheers chaps, a ritualistic beard burning is in order!

JACK SHIT

Mike Torres DOES NOT know me.

jarhead

No wonder since we know he only married your third cousin “Give A Shit”, had a child named Fulla Shit (named after Daddy of course) and currently personally is known as “A Piece of Shit”. Good that you cleared this up for us, knowing there is such a long lineage of the Shit ancestry still around. Now wasn’t “Shit for Brains” the nickname given Dr. Shit here when he topped the GPA at the Citadel with his astonishing 1.3 GPA? Thanks to all of you for exposing this fraud. He had recently contacted me telling me for $2,500 he believed he could find Civil War artifacts in our septic tank. My last words to him were, “No Shit?” His reply, “I’ll bring my son “Shit The Bed” to do the diving. He’s good at dodging brown trout!”