A Minnesota man has been convicted of lying about serving in the military, defrauding the Department of Veterans Affairs out of $146,287 in a brazen case of stolen valor.
Mikhail R. Wicker pieced together a whale of a story, claiming he had served in combat in Iraq, even going so far as stating he had earned a Purple Heart as a member of the Marine Corps.
According to prosecutors in the case, Wicker forged a combat record packed with false information. He claimed he had graduated from sniper school, was deployed to Iraq in 2005 with Lima Company, survived a stint as a prisoner of war, and earned the prestigious Purple Heart for being wounded in combat.
However, a federal investigation uncovered what Wicker was really doing in ’05 – living as a civilian in Michigan. Wicker’s scheme was elaborate. He falsified DD-214 documents detailing his “service record,” produced images of fake medals, and even hoodwinked actual Marines on social media, all to obtain disability benefits from VA, along with funding from the GI Bill.
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