William G. Hillar Special Forces FRAUD

[Team Sergeant]

Alleged Phony SF Colonel Investigated
December 22, 2010
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

When Elon University in North Carolina honored some so-called "hometown heroes" in November, it included a retired Green Beret colonel on a mission to speak out about human trafficking.

William G. "Bill" Hillar said he knew the subject all too well. His daughter Sale was abducted in Asia in 1988 and sold into the sex-slave trade, he said. He spent a futile six months trying to find and rescue her, but she died in captivity.

It was all a lie, and now Hillar is under investigation for his claims by the FBI.

"Colonel in Special Forces -- only in his dreams," said Jeff "J.D." Hinton, a retired Army Special Forces Soldier who began investigating Hillar more than a year ago after hearing there were problems with his background. Hinton immediately began copying images of Hillar's website and other sites in which Hillar's expertise and background were featured. Using personal connections in the Army Special Forces community as well as official channels, Hinton began exposing the holes in Hillar's background on his own website, Professionalsoldiers.com, in October.

There is no record of a William G. Hillar in any Special Forces outfit -- ever -- says Hinton. In fact, a search of military personnel records turned up only one William G. Hillar, a radioman in the Coast Guard from 1962 to 1970, according to Hinton.


Military.com was not able to reach Hillar through the e-mail address and phone number previously listed on his website. Rich Wolf, a spokesman for the FBI's Maryland and Delaware division, confirmed the bureau is investigating Hillar but would not offer details.

For more than five years, Hillar promoted himself as an expert in international trafficking and counterterrorism. He has traveled the country to speak before charity groups, college students and even law enforcement organizations. He has been paid to teach classes, including at the prestigious Monterey Institute for International Studies.

On his now-defunct website, he claimed to be a retired Special Forces colonel who served in Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America. He boasted training and experience in tactical counterterrorism, service with allied forces' elite troops and advising foreign governments and militaries.

When Hillar was confronted about his military credentials by former students, he reportedly denied claiming to be a Green Beret, saying he was just an adviser to the service.

Professionalsoldier.com's Hinton -- who makes it his business to ferret out phony war heroes and spec ops wannabes on his website -- claims Hillar has "made some serious money" passing himself off as a larger-than-life hero. Some promotional material on Hillar states his claimed attempt to rescue his daughter from human traffickers was partly the basis of a 2008 Liam Neeson film called "Taken."

A report in the Monterey County Weekly last month quoted a State Department spokesman as saying there is no record of an American woman named Hillar having been kidnapped anywhere in the world in 1988. Monterey officials began looking into Hillar after the school was contacted by a reader of Hinton's website and some student veterans voiced suspicion of Hillar. When Hillar did not get back to the school with proof of his many claims, it ended its relationship with him.

Hillar's other venues began drying up, too.

The University of Oregon, where Hillar also taught his human trafficking course, quickly dropped him and reported his charade to police.

At George Mason University in Virginia, where he was booked to speak in November, the school canceled his appearance. A spokeswoman said: "If he had shown up, he would have been escorted off campus."

Hinton said fakers such as Hillar don't understand how small the special operations community is. It doesn't take long to establish whether someone is the real thing. He believes the Monterey Institute, which touted Hillar for five years as an adjunct professor, could have found him out and acted a lot sooner.


"They were showcasing this guy like a three-headed snake," he said. "Now, they're trying to say he was not an adjunct professor, but just a contractor. All they're trying to do is mitigate their liability."

To make amends to Hillar's former students, the Institute has offered to let them keep the credit they earned or remove it from their academic record and let them take a makeup course for no charge. Some students who socialized with Hillar out of the classroom don't think it's possible to make up for what happened.

"I bought this man a couple of beers at the Crown & Anchor after class," a student identified as Theresa W. wrote on a Monterey Institute website Nov. 22. "Will MIIS refund me this? I cried for his young daughter who was killed by human traffickers."

http://www.military.com/news/article...estigated.html

[Surgicalcric]

Chalk another one up for the good guys.

Now if we could find someone to do something about our soon to be retired E8 SF wannabe...

[1stindoor]

Originally Posted by Richard

lawyers he's hired from Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe says Wolfgang can release the info, of course...

Richard

Someone's been watching too many old Three Stooges movies.

[PRB]

Originally Posted by 1stindoor

Someone's been watching too many old Three Stooges movies.

or as Chico said " There ain't no Sanity Claus".....

[nousdefions]

University award recipient under investigation for fraud

by Caitlin O'Donnell, January 18, 2011
Bill Hillar, a 2010 recipient of the Hometown Hero award from Elon University for his work as an advocate against human trafficking, is currently being investigated for fraud by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.

The investigation began with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Department in Portland, Ore. and has since moved to the federal level, according to Keith Bickford, director of the Oregon Anti- Human Trafficking Task Force.

Hillar was given the Hometown Hero award, along with Meaghan Murphy and Mark Watros, after being nominated by freshman Savannah Chaisson.

"I nominated Mr. Hillar to speak at Elon after he had spoken at a church in my town last year," she said. "I did not know about any of the accusations before nominating him or even before he came to Elon."

Chaisson said she submitted an essay and an application with his contact information, including e-mail, phone number and address, to nominate Hillar to speak.

Phil Smith, university chaplain, said freshmen nominate people for the award based on their interactions with them. Freshman class officers select the final three recipients.

"In this case, not as much was known personally, but it was still someone who had an impact," he said. "Anytime you don't know someone directly, there's just less you know about them, but his story was very impactful."

Suspicions come to the surface

Concerns regarding Hillar's background were first raised a few hours before the Hometown Heroes ceremony took place on Nov. 8. Smith said the university received a vague e-mail with an anonymous tip. The tipster claimed military involvement and accused Hillar of misrepresenting his military record.

"I did consult around a little bit to find out what would be a good thing to do here," Smith said. "With some good advice, I went and met with him."

Smith said he explained to Hillar the university had received an e-mail questioning the validity of his military record. Hillar said it had happened once before.

"At that point, you've got a person you're about to give an award to, and you question whether the accusing person just didn't like them," Smith said. "You can't just not give them the award because someone said that an hour before. And it had nothing to do with the award, which was for advocacy against human trafficking."

On Oct. 28, a week before the Hometown Hero ceremony, Jeff Hinton, a retired Special Forces Master Sergeant involved with the association of Professional Soldiers, published findings questioning Hillar's military experience.

Professional Soldiers is an online forum for members of the Special Forces. According to Hinton, Special Forces alludes to only one unit, the Green Berets, of which Hillar claimed to have been a part, specifically a retired colonel of the United States Army Special Forces.

"Over a year ago, we got an e-mail asking who Bill Hillar was," Hinton said in an interview. "That e-mail, once it hit Special Forces command, went out to the 'who's who' of Green Berets."

The small unit, which has existed for 54 years, has around 2,000 members around the country at any given time, he said.

"It would have been very hard for this guy to not have been known, and it went out and no one knew who he was," Hinton said. "I made it my goal to expose this guy. Nobody wants to question someone's credentials when they are viewed as a hero, but someone has to do it and not let them continue to scam (people)."

Probing for truth

Hinton began by sending for Hillar's records at the National Personnel Records Center. All members of the United States military have a record known as a DD214, which is part of any member of the military's resume when he or she applies for a job. The record also includes when the person left the service and how he or she was discharged, whether dishonorably or honorably, and what medals the person was awarded.

"You can get any person's DD214, the records are not classified," Hinton said. "Even after finding his date of birth and social security number, I couldn't get anything."

Hinton next enlisted the help of Mary and Chuck Schantag, who also work to expose Green Beret frauds across the country, and discovered Hillar served eight years in the Coast Guard and was never a member of the Special Forces.

After more research, Hinton said he discovered Hillar had conned multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security.

"I asked the FBI how he pulled this off, and they never thought to question his credentials," Hinton said. "The thing is, we get involved because no one else is going to question this guy."

Within two to three weeks of Hinton's published accusations, Hillar's website, citing his credentials and advertising his training workshops, was removed from the Internet and Hillar had essentially gone into hiding, according to Hinton. Around that time, he confirmed with the FBI that they were on his case.

"This is not the first time we've done this," he said. "We don't go after the guy who claims it sitting at the bar. We go after the guys that make themselves public figures and say they can offer training. We don't take lightly to people using the title to scam innocent people, especially for money."

Ending the 'scam'

Claiming to have qualifications as an elite member of the military, Hinton said Hillar charged individuals and organizations for military training.

This included the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. Hillar was contracted to lead a 15-hour, three-day workshop, worth one academic credit in 2005. Since then, he has led one workshop per semester, most recently on human trafficking in October of last year, according to Jason Warburg, executive director of communications at the Institute.

In early November, a student from the workshop came to the administration, expressing concern over whether Hillar's claims about his background were true. Besides claiming involvement with Special Forces, Hillar also asserted in a resume that he held a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. Around the same time, postings from Professional Soldiers came to the attention of the Institute, which triggered an investigation, Warburg said.

"We reviewed the information, communicated to him that we needed documentation, and there was no response," he said. "We confirmed with the University of Oregon that he did not have a Ph.D. We concluded he has misrepresented his academic credentials and issued a statement of findings."

In the statement, Monterey Institute President Sunder Ramaswamy apologized for the incident and placed responsibility on the Institute for failing to uphold the quality and integrity of the instruction received there.

According to the statement, the Institute will offer students who attended Hillar's workshops the option of either keeping the credit on their academic records or removing it and enrolling in a comparable workshop at no cost.

Though Hillar, as a workshop instructor, was not subject to the pre-employment background check typical for all employees, the Institute has since changed its policy.

"Workshop instructors ... typically come to the attention of the academic administration through recommendations and a resume, proposed syllabus and list of references would generally be considered sufficient," the statement read. "However, as a result of this incident, the institute has extended the requirement for a full pre-engagement background check to any person who provides classroom instruction for academic credit."

Attempts to contact Hillar have been unsuccessful.

Precedent for the future

According to Smith, Elon's experience with Hillar will likely have little bearing on the future of the Hometown Hero award.

"If someone has misrepresented themself, I'd hate for that to mean we have to scrutinize everyone who's nominated," he said. "We're not going to do the same level of checking you would do if you were having someone come and teach or someone offering credit."

Smith said there has never been a situation presented in which a recipient of the award would have the recognition retracted. If the officers and nominator choose to do that, Smith said it could be a potential discussion.

"I don't feel like I'm giving the award as an individual, I feel like our office is sponsoring the award and it raises the question of whose award it is to rescind," Smith said. "This is an institution of higher education and we learn something every day. I imagine we'll learn something from all of this."

[Richard]

Concerns regarding Hillar's background were first raised a few hours before the Hometown Heroes ceremony took place on Nov. 8. Smith said the university received a vague e-mail with an anonymous tip. The tipster claimed military involvement and accused Hillar of misrepresenting his military record.

This is the 'vague e-mail' they're referring to which I sent to the Elon newspaper, Rex Waters (Associate Dean of Students), and Smith Jackson (Vice President and Dean of Student Life) regarding Hillar's award.

Mr Waters,

In reference to the below listed on Elon's web-site:

Bill Hillar, Millersville, Maryland
Nominated and introduced by Savannah Chaisson in connection with Rex Water’s Elon 101 class
Award presented by Kyrstin Wallach, Secretary

Bill Hillar is an activist who speaks to all who will listen about his personal experiences concerning the atrocities of human trafficking. In 1988 while traveling with school mates, his daughter was abducted and forced into the sex industry. Despite an exhaustive, multi-country search, Bill was unable to save his daughter from the fate that ultimately took her life. The movie "Taken" with Liam Neeson is partially based on Bill Hillar’s personal story. Rather than allow the loss of his daughter to devastate him for the rest of his life, Bill has dedicated his life to educating people on the largely overlooked problem of human trafficking.

You should be aware that one of your special guests for your 8 November event, William G Hillar, is neither a retired Special Forces Officer nor the source for the movie "Taken" as he has falsely claimed for quite some time now. He is a complete fraud who is currently being exposed for what he claims to be but is not through the efforts of the REAL Special Forces community. His real military service was as an enlisted radar operator in the USCG Reserve for 8 years from 1962 to 1970 and he has never lost a daughter as he claims.

We in the Special Forces community take such matters very seriously and you can read about our efforts to expose Hillar at:

William G. Hillar Special Forces FRAUD

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=30904

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

X. Richard XXXXX
MAJ (Ret), Special Forces
(XXX) XXX-XXXX

I'll try to be more specific next time.

And so it goes...

Richard

[Richard]

FYI - this was my response to the Elon student paper when they contacted me after the fact of Hillar's award presentation asking about him.

Ms O'Donnell,

Thank you for your message posted to my FB page yesterday. I would be glad to talk with you about the Bill Hillar situation which we, the Special Forces community and MSG Hinton in particular, worked on for a year to fully investigate and expose.

FYI, we in SF take that title and the honor which goes with it very seriously, and, to that end, work diligently to 'out' those like Bill Hillar who fraudulently lay claim to the recognition and honor for which so many have worked so long and hard to attain.

Bill Hillar came to our attention more than a year ago when, as so often happens with these guys, one of our community saw his web-site and began asking if anyone knew him. Because nobody knew of him, and our size is such that the reputations of the senior officers and NCOs in SF are well known among us, we began looking into his claims - Special Forces Colonel; terrorism and human trafficking expert; daughter kidnapped, trafficked, and killed. Using both official and 'open' source materials, we found Bill Hillar to be a complete fraud, challenged him to come forth and refute our claims (which he did not do), and exposed him publicly to those he duped and defrauded with his web of deceitful lies.

As the documents found at the following link show, Bill Hillar was never in SF and, in fact, was a Radar Operator in the US Coast Guard Reserve for 8 years.

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...2&postcount=23

Because we have current and ex-SF living and serving throughout the world, we have a long reach and personally took it upon ourselves to contact the organizations, schools, and government agencies upon which Hillar had perpetrated his frauds. They then began looking into the matter themselves and his make-believe world really began to fall apart. Others, like the students at MIIS, also took up the campaign, forcing an otherwise recalcitrant administration to confront the truth about Hillar - as embarrassing as that may have been for someone who had touted his fake credentials and had granted academic credit based upon little but self-aggrandized lies, and who needed to contain the 'damage' this situation would certainly cause their academic reputation.

I personally wrote to several organizations about Hillar's lies, Elon being one when it was discovered that he was to be honored with an award for which he was wholly unqualified. I wrote the response to your paper's article on the forthcoming award on 11-6-2010 and also I wrote an e-mail giving the same information to the school's contact listed in the article - Associate Dean of Students Rex Waters.

You can follow our 'open' efforts to nail Hillar's hide to the proverbial wall at:

http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=30904

I am one of the administrator's of the web-site and my user name is Richard.

Realize that there was much more taking place amongst the SF community behind the scenes on this matter, but that is for our purposes as there are many other Hillar-like weasels out there peddaling their lies, defrauding and endangering innocent people and governments globally, and dishonoring the vast majority of veterans who have served faithfully and see no reason to behave as Hillar did. These Hillar-like frauds need to know that they are in our sights and they will be exposed, that they cannot run from us and, if they try, will only be tired when we run them to ground.

For a better view of how big this 'stolen valor' issue really is, you should read Stolen Valor by BG Burkett and visit the POW Network's web-site at:

http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies.htm

Here is the Hillar link which is now posted on their web-site:

http://www.pownetwork.org/phonies/phonies701.htm

FYI, we have worked very closely with the Schantag's for years on tracking down and exposing these liars and frauds, and truly appreciate all that they do for all of us.

SF MSG (Ret) Jeff Hinton was the lead for the Hillar exposure and can be contacted through the Professional Soldiers web-site at jdprofessionals@q.com

I wish you all the best in your task.

De oppresso liber

X. Richard XXXXX
Major (Retired), SF
Dallas, TX

(XXX) XXX-XXXX

And so it goes...

Richard

[rdret1]

Originally Posted by nousdefions

University award recipient under investigation for fraud

"In this case, not as much was known personally, but it was still someone who had an impact," he said. "Anytime you don't know someone directly, there's just less you know about them, but his story was very impactful."

Impactful?! Is that a word?

[Richard]

Impactful?! Is that a word?

It certainly is in the business world - and is used about every 5th word in a business plan or marketing presentation.

Richard

[rdret1]

Originally Posted by Richard

It certainly is in the business world - and is used about every 5th word in a business plan or marketing presentation.

Richard

Okay. I thought it might be along the lines of "orientating."

[Jgood]

Originally Posted by Richard

This is the 'vague e-mail'

Yup pretty vague guess we have to break out the crayolas for colleges now on

So by "not" rescinding the award they pretty much made it worthless and a slap in the face to everyone else that has recieved it.

[Team Sergeant]

Guess who got arrested today?

Bill Hillar, alleged inspiration for film 'Taken', arrested by FBI
By Brad BellJanuary 25, 2011 - 09:39 am ABC7 NewsThis story will be updated.

MILLERSVILLE, Md. — William Hillar was arrested by the FBI Tuesday morning, sources said. The 66-year-old is being charged with defrauding clients — including the FBI itself — who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his expertise in counterterrorism and human trafficking.

Hillar is best known for claiming his daughter was abducted in Asia and sold into slavery in 1988, and that the storyline was used in the 2008 movie Taken, starring Liam Neeson

http://www.tbd.com/articles/2011/01/...fbi-47382.html

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Guess who got arrested today?

Bill Hillar, alleged inspiration for film 'Taken', arrested by FBI
By Brad BellJanuary 25, 2011 - 09:39 am ABC7 NewsThis story will be updated.

MILLERSVILLE, Md. — William Hillar was arrested by the FBI Tuesday morning, sources said. The 66-year-old is being charged with defrauding clients — including the FBI itself — who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his expertise in counterterrorism and human trafficking.

Hillar is best known for claiming his daughter was abducted in Asia and sold into slavery in 1988, and that the storyline was used in the 2008 movie Taken, starring Liam Neeson

http://www.tbd.com/articles/2011/01/...fbi-47382.html

Today is a good day.

Next will be the day he is convicted and sent to prison.

TR

[Richard]

Aus-effin'-gezeichnet!!!

Richard

[sinjefe]

Best news of the day!