Veteran pretending to be paralyzed got $750K in disability — but he could walk, feds say
A U.S. Army veteran would use a wheelchair while attending VA medical center appointments as part of a scheme in which he pretended to be paralyzed to steal more than $750,000 in disability benefits, according to federal prosecutors.
For more than two years, federal agents investigated William Rich and saw him standing before and after his medical center visits, walking, using the stairs, lifting, bending, and carrying items without a wheelchair, prosecutors said.
On his social media accounts, Rich was seen working out in videos of him lifting weights and standing in a photo he had taken of himself at a gym, according to prosecutors.
In June, a federal jury found Rich guilty of wire fraud and theft of government money, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
Now, he’s avoided prison time after prosecutors requested that he be sentenced to three years and five months in prison, court documents show.
A judge sentenced Rich, 44, of Windsor Mill, to one year of home confinement and two years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in an Oct. 16 news release. As part of his sentence, he was ordered to forfeit $774,367.05 — the amount the government said he obtained in his scheme, court records show.
Rich’s defense attorney, Gerald Ruter, told McClatchy News in an emailed statement on Oct. 18 that the judge “captured the fact that Mr. Rich was found guilty by a jury and weighed that against the incredible contributions and sacrifices he has made to his country and community.”
“That sacrifice, and the injuries he has sustained, will remain for the rest of Mr. Rich’s life,” Ruter said. “We thank the Court for balancing these realities and permitting Mr. Rich to serve his sentence in the confines of his home.”
Rich joined the Army in 1998, when he was 17, and served in the military until 2007, according to prosecutors.
On Aug. 23, 2005, he was injured in a bombing in Baqubah, Iraq, and became temporarily paralyzed, prosecutors said.
Six weeks after the bombing, “he made substantial progress toward recovery and was no longer paralyzed,” prosecutors said.
In a medical report that followed, Rich was considered able to perform some of his essential daily activities independently or in a modified way, according to prosecutors.
However, he started receiving veteran disability benefits after he was granted permanent disability by the VA, “largely based on an exam conducted on October 11, 2007, where he reported paralysis in his lower extremities and that he was confined to a wheelchair,” prosecutors said.
For the next several years, Rich maintained that he was paralyzed and couldn’t walk during VA disability compensation and pension exams, according to prosecutors.
“While service members deserve our utmost respect for their service, like any other public servant, they are held to a higher standard of honor. (Rich) acted far below that standard for more than a decade,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
In 2018, the VA Office of Inspector General started reviewing all veterans who were receiving more than $8,000 a month in disability, including Rich, prosecutors said.
Then special agents began surveilling him and saw him “walking, standing, and bending as he went to various restaurants, the grocery store, and the mall,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
Before and after Rich’s VA medical center appointments, agents saw him lift his wheelchair into his car, according to prosecutors.
Alongside receiving benefits he wasn’t owed, Rich was given grants from the VA for “Automobile and Adaptive Equipment,” and “Specially Adapted Housing,” prosecutors said.
Instead of buying a specially adapted vehicle, which the grants were meant for, Rich bought a BMW 645ci luxury sports coupe, according to prosecutors.
In sentencing Rich, U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson weighed Rich’s life circumstances, including how he “was born to a teen mother, experienced homelessness and grew up in a rough neighborhood in Baltimore,” The Baltimore Banner reported.
He discussed how Rich’s theft of benefits followed a “horrific, life-altering journey” during his time in Iraq, according to the newspaper.
Hurson described Rich’s actions as an “egregious fraud,” but told him, “There’s a lot more to your life than what you did.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2024 at 8:10 AM with the headline "Veteran pretending to be paralyzed got $750K in disability — but he could walk, feds say."
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