Perpetrator of Bank Heist Against Army Soldier Sentenced

[Elderberry]

The Post & Email 4/25/2019

On April 17, the former power of attorney (POA) of a former U.S. Army soldier from whose bank account tens of thousands of dollars were stolen between November 2016 and early January 2017 testified by telephone during a plea agreement for the perpetrator.

In 2013, the soldier, who was medically-discharged more than two years ago, was sexually assaulted by four military contractors, after which he was thrown into moving traffic and suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI).  He underwent several years of treatment, both at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) and at facilities in Texas and Florida, respectively, to aid in his recovery.

More recently he had been stationed on non-duty status while undergoing additional treatment at Walter Reed.

On September 29, 2016 the soldier was unexpectedly ordered to report to the Emergency Room at Walter Reed.  Although having undergone an ordered examination and been cleared as fit to return to his apartment four weeks earlier by an emergency-room physician, on the latter date he was placed in the hospital’s psychiatric wing without his computer or cell phone, the POA reported.

The POA was led to believe that the soldier had experienced some type of episode leading to his hospitalization, she told us, but when she flew to Washington the following day to see the situation for herself, she “saw something entirely different.”

Her attempts to secure his release were unsuccessful until late December 2016, when a Walter Reed commander contacted her by phone to inform her that the soldier would be relocated to a Veterans Administration (VA) hospital in his home state followed by an official discharge.

A month before his discharge, the POA contacted the White House to request a presidential investigation into the soldier’s treatment and confinement at Walter Reed, to which she never received a response.  She had also requested assistance from the office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who has been an outspoken advocate on behalf of victims of military sexual assault and harassment. While Gillibrand initiated a congressional investigation with the Army, to the POA’s knowledge, the Army never properly responded.

The POA’s request for a Walter Reed Inspector General investigation was similarly disregarded, the POA reported at the time.

During his time in the ward, the POA became aware that large amounts of cash had disappeared, on different dates, from the soldier’s account at Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) without authorization. She promptly notified authorities and an investigation was launched.

The money, ultimately totaling “almost $100,000,” was restored to the soldier’s account in early January 2017.

Also during his hospitalization, the POA learned that Walter Reed contacted the Montgomery County, MD Office of Adult Protective Services to purportedly to assist in developing a “safe and appropriate discharge plan” for the soldier with possible “guardianship” without her knowledge or consent.

Shortly after contacting The Post & Email for the first time in June 2016, the POA reported that her email account, work-associated laptop computer, and her children’s bank accounts were breached. She began receiving “strange phone calls from unrecognizable numbers,” she told us, and observed on repeated occasions SUVs with “darkly-tinted windows” parked outside of her home, including as recently as December.

In 2015, a loan taken on the soldier’s alleged signature which the POA said he could not have signed for given his level of disability at the time was denied as “fraud” by an NFCU “senior investigator.”  A letter of inquiry directed to the individual from this publication received no response.

More: https://www.thepostemail.com/2019/04/25/perpetrator-of-bank-heist-against-army-soldier-sentenced/