$2 million missing from 28 veterans' accounts

How do these people live with absolutely no conscience at all?

Thieves swindle disabled veterans, program
By Eric Nalder and Lise Olsen
Sunday, June 17, 2012

Roy Wilson Swirczynski, a disabled veteran in Houston, for years requested an investigation of his fiduciary, Joe Phillips. The VA later discovered nearly $2 million missing from 28 veterans' accounts, the largest theft total uncovered in a fiduciary program.
Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle / © 2012 Houston Chronicle

They survived the Nazis, the Viet Cong and the Taliban. But hundreds of mentally disabled veterans suffered new wounds when the country they served put their checkbooks in the hands of scoundrels.


Gambling addicts, psychiatric cases and convicted criminals are among the thieves who have been handed control of disabled veterans' finances by the Veterans Affairs Department, a Hearst Newspapers investigation has found.

For decades, theft and fraud have plagued the fiduciary program, in which the VA appoints a family member or a stranger to manage money for veterans whom the government considers incapacitated. The magnitude and pace of those thefts have increased, despite VA promises of reform. Three of the largest scams — ranging from about $900,000 to $2 million — each persisted for 10 years or more before being discovered.

In the past six years, the VA has removed 467 fiduciaries for misuse of money, but only a fraction have faced criminal charges, a Hearst analysis of data from the VA's Office of the Inspector General shows.
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If cream rises to the top then you know crud always sinks to the bottom.