A U.S. Army veteran stole more than $779,000 in government disability benefits by pretending to have severe PTSD in a scheme that involved him lying about receiving a Purple Heart award, federal prosecutors said.
Kevin Paul McMains, 44, of Milton, Florida, was sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for theft of government money and two counts of making false statements to a federal agency, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida said in a Jan. 13 news release.
He previously pleaded guilty to the charges, prosecutors said.
“Our service members, and their families, make incredible sacrifices to defend our country and are deserving of our deepest respect and the disability benefits intended for our injured patriots,” U.S. Attorney Jason R. Coody said in a statement. “Consequently, the defendant’s fabrication of documents and false claims of service-connected injuries, to include his assertion he was awarded a Purple Heart, is not only criminal, but repugnant.”
A federal public defender representing McMains didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
From May 2009 to February 2023, McMains defrauded the VA, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services of benefits, according to court documents.
After McMains left the Army in 2009, the VA rated McMains as 100% disabled for PTSD that caused him insomnia and memory lapses, a statement of facts says. He served in the Army from July 8, 1999, to October 8, 1999, and from March 8, 2001, to April 27, 2009.
In the years that followed, McMains exaggerated the effects of his PTSD and provided false information to the VA to support his 100% disability rating, according to prosecutors.
McMains told medical professionals that his PTSD prevented him from working, doing normal activities and caring for himself while “knowing that was not true,” prosecutors said.
Investigators discovered McMains faked a form he sent to the VA that was “purportedly completed by a mental health counselor” and “gave the impression that (McMains’) medical condition relating to PTSD was much more severe than it really was,” according to court documents.
McMains also lied to VA medical personnel during two exams at a VA clinic in Pensacola in December 2019 and February 2021, the statement of facts says.
The VA rated him as 100% disabled following these exams, according to the statement of facts.
However, he should’ve been given a lower disability rating, prosecutors wrote in the filing.
“Had McMains provided truthful information to the VA, his disability rating for PTSD would have instead been 30%,” the statement of facts says.
McMains was also untruthful about receiving a Purple Heart award, a claim prosecutors said he used “as proof of his service-connected injuries.”
The Purple Heart is awarded to individuals who were injured or killed during their U.S. military service.
McMains’ lies to the VA resulted in him receiving Social Security disability benefits and Medicare coverage he wasn’t entitled to, prosecutors said.
As part of his sentence, McMains must pay $378,380.82 in restitution to the VA, $357,847.80 in restitution to the SSA and $43,451.56 in restitution to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He will serve two years of supervised release after his sentence, prosecutors said.
Milton, where McMains lives, is about a 180-mile drive west from Tallahassee.
Government benefits fraud
Out of more than 64,000 federal criminal cases reported to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2023, nearly 5,000 involved “theft, property destruction and fraud,” according to the agency.
Government benefits fraud made up 16.3% of these cases, and nearly 800 people were sentenced in benefit fraud cases that year, the U.S. Sentencing Commission reports.
This marks a 92.2% increase in government benefits fraud cases since 2019, according to the agency.
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