BALTIMORE (AP) — A former Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs official has pleaded guilty to fraud for a scheme in which he submitted false documents and collected roughly $1.4 million in veterans’ benefits.
Sixty-seven-year-old Army veteran David Clark of Hydes, Maryland, pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore on Monday to one count of extortion. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he’s sentenced on Nov. 17.
Clark worked until 2011 as the deputy chief of veterans’ claims for the department. Court documents say he submitted fraudulent paperwork for himself and 17 veterans seeking benefits. Clark created counterfeit forms for himself and five other veterans, stating that they had served in Vietnam. For others, Clark manufactured and submitted false doctor’s notes stating that the claimants had diabetes.
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