BALTIMORE – A 68-year-old U.S. Army veteran and former Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs official was charged with collecting $1.4 million in benefits fraudulently, according to the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland.
“I think it was a situation where he recognized that he had this authority that nobody is looking over his shoulder,” said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.
Rosenstein says 68-year-old David Clark drafted fake letters and documents that made certain veterans appear to be eligible for a federal V.A. settlement program. Rosenstein said the V.A. started the program as an effort to settle claims of veterans suffering from diabetes. To be eligible for the up to $20,000 per year compensation, applicants have to be a veteran who served in Vietnam and presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, which may have caused diabetes.
“He was the person responsible for certifying that these were authentic documents. So, he would certify the documents, then pass them on to the federal V.A., which would approve them based on Mr. Clark’s certifications,” Rosenstein said.
Rosenstein said Clark submitted a fraudulent claim for himself and at least 17 others.
“There were six cases where Mr. Clark fabricated a Department of Defense form claiming that they had served in Vietnam, for people who hadn’t even been in Vietnam, let alone didn’t have diabetes,” Rosenstein said.
If they were proven to suffer from diabetes previously, the V.A. would make the payment program retroactive — essentially resulting in a lump sum.
“Mr. Clark would take a cut of that payment. Effectively, he was taking a bribe from the claimants for helping them submit these fraudulent claims,” said Rosenstein.
In Focus Investigators went to Clark’s Baltimore County home. A man who answered the door declined comment, saying, “talk to my lawyer.”
His lawyer sent In Focus a statement via e-mail that reads:
We’re pleased that Judge Blake took into account Mr. Clark’s service to his country in Vietnam, lifetime of public service thereafter, and current health in crafting an appropriate sentence, said Charles N. Curlett, Jr. of Levin & Curlett. Faced with a sentence of 7-9 years under the federal guidelines, Mr. Clark was relieved that the Court imposed a sentence that will require him to spend no more than one year in a medical treatment facility with the federal bureau of prisons.
Clark was sentenced to a year and a day in prison. Rosenstein said he’s confident that the sentence would have been much longer if Clark wasn’t suffering health issues. Clark is responsible, by law, for the entire $1.4 million jointly with the other claimants.
“Every dollar that’s paid out through a fraudulent claim is a dollar that’s not available for a legitimate claim or a dollar that some taxpayer has to pay that really shouldn’t have been paid out,” Rosenstein said.
Rosenstein says six of the 17 others have been prosecuted in federal court.
Clark retired from the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs in 2011.
