09-10-2008, 08:23
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
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Randall Moneymaker
Phony War Hero Gets 3 Years
September 09, 2008
Roanoke Times & World News
Former Soldier Randall Moneymaker has been sentenced to three years in prison for embellishing a brief military career into that of a decorated combat veteran. Moneymaker is part of the growing problem of "phony war heroes," across the nation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig "Jake" Jacobsen said. "As the wars drag on in this country, you have more and more wannabes" who make claims of sacrifices never suffered and medals never earned, Jacobsen said.
Moneymaker was sentenced on Sept. 5. Unlike other imposters, who seek only bragging rights or political gain, Moneymaker was motivated mostly by greed, the government contended -- making his false claims to collect20more than $18,000 in disability and military benefits. Moneymaker was sentenced Friday by Judge James Turk following a March trial in U.S. District Court in Roanoke. After hearing testimony that Moneymaker made up tales of firefights, Ranger missions and hundreds of parachute jumps, a jury convicted him of six charges of fraud and theft.
"I'm sorry for what I've done," Moneymaker told the judge, apologizing to his family, his country, his fellow soldiers and "anyone else that I've done wrong."
After spending just two years in the Army in the mid-1980s, Moneymaker would later claim to be a decorated Army Ranger with more than 20 years of service that included tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Panama and Grenada. But during the years when he told of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from seeing his fellow soldiers killed beside him, Moneymaker was actually attending college and working in the telecommunications field. And the scars on his back that he attributed to shrapnel wounds were actually the result of liposuction, federal prosecutors said.
Moneymaker was "someone who obtained respect, sympathy and benefits based on the sacrifices and the blood of other veterans who went through what he claimed he went through but didn't," Jacobsen said.
Although Moneymaker wore Ranger badges and a Purple Heart he never earned, the charges he was convicted of were limited to the paperwork he filled out to receive benefits from the U.S. Army and Veterans Affairs. The charges included five counts of making false statements on forms he filed or in claims he made while applying for disability benefits or inquiring about a military pension. He also was charged with theft for receiving $18,449.32 in disability payments to which he was not entitled. Moneymaker, a 44-year-old who now lives in North Carolina, was ordered to pay that amount back to the government, plus another $600.
Choosing not to testify at his trial or his sentencing, Moneymaker spoke only when asked by the judge if he had anything to say just before his punishment was announced. Looking across the courtroom, he apologized to Jacobsen, who as a veteran of the war in Iraq has said he takes the case especially seriously.
Defense attorney C.J. Covati questioned Jacobsen's statement that Moneymaker's crimes were among the worst he has seen in his 17 years as a federal prosecutor. "To say that it's one of the worst ever is to let moral indignation get a little bit ahead of the facts in this case," Covati said.
Following Friday's hearing, Moneymaker was allowed to remain free on bond until he is ordered to report to prison, which Covati said will probably be in two or three months.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/175841
__________________
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
Last edited by Richard; 09-10-2008 at 09:20.
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Richard is offline
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09-10-2008, 20:52
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#2
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Sneaking back and forth across the Border
Posts: 6,679
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Yehhhhhhhhhhhh........Yehhhhhhhhh  
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SF_BHT is offline
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09-10-2008, 21:35
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
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Scumbag.
I would prefer that he did his time cleaning bedpans of real heroes in a VA med facility.
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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09-11-2008, 11:02
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
Scumbag.
I would prefer that he did his time cleaning bedpans of real heroes in a VA med facility.
TR
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Amen.
Hmmmn, I wonder where in NC this bonehead lives. Hopefully close to a base, so that when he runs his suck again spewing his lies, we can catch him again.
Stras
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Stras is offline
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09-11-2008, 11:43
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#5
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Quiet Professional (RIP)
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Carriere,Ms.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
Scumbag.
I would prefer that he did his time cleaning bedpans of real heroes in a VA med facility.
TR
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Right on TR,............. 
GB TFS
__________________
I believe that SF is a 'calling' - not too different from the calling missionaries I know received. I knew instantly that it was for me, and that I would do all I could to achieve it. Most others I know in SF experienced something similar. If, as you say, you HAVE searched and read, and you do not KNOW if this is the path for you --- it is not....
Zonie Diver
SF is a calling and it requires commitment and dedication that the uninitiated will never understand......
Jack Moroney
SFA M-2527, Chapter XXXVII
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greenberetTFS is offline
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09-11-2008, 12:36
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#6
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: 18 yrs upstate NY, 30 yrs South Florida, 20 yrs Conch Republic, now chasing G-Kids in NOVA & UK
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One Down,, and many to go...
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Go raibh tú leathuair ar Neamh sula mbeadh a fhios ag an diabhal go bhfuil tú marbh
"May you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead"
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JJ_BPK is offline
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09-11-2008, 17:34
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#7
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I wish these stories would air on national nightly news!
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jdl141 is offline
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09-11-2008, 19:57
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#8
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: LA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
Scumbag.
I would prefer that he did his time cleaning bedpans of real heroes in a VA med facility.
TR
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+1
__________________
Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimal food or water, in austere conditions, training day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon and he made his web gear. He doesn't worry about what workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. This True Believer is not concerned about 'how hard it is;' he knows either he wins or dies. He doesn't go home at 17:00, he is home.
He knows only The Cause.
Still want to quit?
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NousDefionsDoc is offline
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09-11-2008, 20:14
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#9
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Quiet Professional
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Location: Trinidad Colorado
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Egregious as this crime is and deserving as the punishment he received is also, I couldn’t get past the part about his "war scars" being from liposuction.
I wonder what his nickname in prison is going to be.
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2 Block Secured is offline
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09-12-2008, 17:48
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#10
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Der Vaterland
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 2 Block Secured
Egregious as this crime is and deserving as the punishment he received is also, I couldn’t get past the part about his "war scars" being from liposuction.
I wonder what his nickname in prison is going to be.
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Bubba's Bitch
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Stras is offline
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10-13-2008, 10:53
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#11
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Quiet Professional (RIP)
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Carriere,Ms.
Posts: 6,922
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jdl141
I wish these stories would air on national nightly news!
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jdl141,
It is strange that information regarding stories like this are "never" shown on any news station....Ever wonder why? 
GB TFS 
__________________
I believe that SF is a 'calling' - not too different from the calling missionaries I know received. I knew instantly that it was for me, and that I would do all I could to achieve it. Most others I know in SF experienced something similar. If, as you say, you HAVE searched and read, and you do not KNOW if this is the path for you --- it is not....
Zonie Diver
SF is a calling and it requires commitment and dedication that the uninitiated will never understand......
Jack Moroney
SFA M-2527, Chapter XXXVII
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greenberetTFS is offline
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10-13-2008, 10:56
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#12
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: NorCal
Posts: 15,370
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenberetTFS
jdl141,It is strange that information regarding stories like this are "never" shown on any news station....Ever wonder why? |
Guys,
These type stories do show up on the news out here in Texas.
Richard 
__________________
“Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whisky bottle in the hand of (another)… There are just some kind of men who – who’re so busy worrying about the next world they’ve never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results.” - To Kill A Mockingbird (Atticus Finch)
“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.” - Robert Heinlein
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