Not the Best Time for this Veteran to Be Sentenced, Is It?

Financial shenanigans of convicted white collar criminals like Madoff and the unindicted co-conspirators of the global financial meltdown have sensitized the public to white-collar crimes, which have traditionally received minimal punishments.

Punishments certainly need to fit the crime, and the public may finally insist on more than the common judicial wink, a slap on the wrist, token fine and 2 years imprisonment.

What would you think of a veteran who attempted to defraud the VA out of more than a million dollars in benefits? The guy who was later an Idaho sheriff's deputy who falsely claimed he was paraplegic, told a doctor in 2007 that he had been unable to work or walk since he left the Air Force in 1975. A year sfter he retired and began receiving disability compensation (1976), he founded a company called Custom Excavation and continued operating the business until 1992.

Federal investigators said that after Sebero retired he started an excavation company and operated it until 1992, and since 1992 he has owned and operated Custom Aviation, an aircraft maintenance operation for small planes at Felts Field in Spokane. He obtained a pilot's license after denying any medical problem or disability on his application to the Federal Aviation Administration, government lawyers wrote. source

In what U.S. Attorney James A. McDevitt called the largest disability compensation fraud case in Veterans Affairs Department history, an Idaho man has pleaded guilty in a $1.5 million disability fraud case.

An Air Force veteran in Idaho has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and making a false statement.
The 59-year-old man agreed to forfeit personal assets and to pay $950,000 in restitution, and could face 20 years and a $250,000 fine.

Well, time will tell us if his sentence is over 2-5 years and his fine more than $25,000. He is to be sentenced July 10th.

"By his actions, Mr. Sebero disgraced the system that compensates all those veterans who are truly disabled and who are fairly compensated for their injuries sustained in service to their country," McDevitt said.

We are outraged not only as veterans, but as taxpayers. more Are you?