Posted on 05/06/2007 6:25:12 PM PDT by Stoat
Exclusive
Sunday, May 6th 2007, 4:00 AM
The FBI is using a new law to nab phonies like Georgia's Richard Thibodeau, who was outed as a fake marine.
The FBI's Washington headquarters receives at least 15 tips a week about fake heroes - and most of the information comes from veterans who are furious that the scam artists are demeaning real sacrifices, said FBI Special Agent Michael Sanborn.
Sanborn said the charlatans are an insult to the nearly 200,000 veterans who have perished in faraway battles and earned their medals posthumously.
"These guys gave their lives for their medals," he said. "These other guys bought theirs off eBay."
The FBI investigates all the tips and, on average, more than a hundred each year lead to pretenders who tout their bogus heroics at Memorial Day rallies and other military galas, said Sanborn, a Marine Corps captain who has been hunting impostors for a decade.
The latest to be accused is Louis Lowell McGuinn, a 62-year-old Vietnam vet from Flushing, Queens. Prosecutors say he promoted himself from private to lieutenant colonel and wore the Army's highest medals for valor on his dress blues during an October gala at the Hotel Pierre.
McGuinn became the first person in the nation to be prosecuted under a new law, the Stolen Valor Act, which exposes convicted fakers to a year in prison.
McGuinn's lawyer says he plans to defend his client by attacking the merits of the law.
"They're going to be sitting in the jury box waiting to hear about the crime that was committed," said attorney Paul Dalnoky. "He served and this is how the government thanks him?"
Dalnoky would not acknowledge that his client broke the law. But the lawyer added, "We all do it. With women. Applying for a job. It's all puffery."
Authorities say McGuinn wrongly parlayed his medals into lucrative security consulting contracts.
"This is a problem that has gone on as long as there have been soldiers," said Doug Sterner, a military historian who keeps track of medal winners and helps the FBI ferret out the phonies. "Soldiers tell war stories."
Perhaps YOU and YOUR friends and acquaintances "all do it", but some of us out here actually believe in the concept of honor and truth. Maybe we're all naive saps as far as you're concerned, but you won't ever get a dime from me.
I'll remember your name as one to avoid if I am ever in need of legal representation.
May God Bless our troops, the vast majority of whom have far more honor and integrity in their pinky's fingernail than this lowlife 'lawyer' has in his whole body.
That’s some mustache! Goes back a few ... decades. A century even.
LOL @ No Word On Kerry
Yes, that embarrassment to all who have served is hiding behind multiple facades.
That is such a lie. Some of us actually care about earning things based on real merit, not on half-truths and all-out lies. Sheesh!
He was easy to catch, claiming to have served in the Civil War. LOL!
It had to be said at the outset.....I wouldn't want people clicking on this thread and reading the article in the hopes of getting a "Kerry Update" :-)
I thought at first he was a Prussian Officer!
It's certainly a valuable insight into this 'lawyer's' social circle and family, isn't it?
All he needs is the spiked helmet and the lie would be complete :-)
So lawyers all lie, and some clown thinks he’s Hindenberg.
Where’s the form 180, Kerry???
Puffery? This guy and his lawyer are obviously caught in a time warp...
The FBI wont be investigating Murtha or Kerry ,you can bet on that. In fact they have tapes of Jefferson being bribed and they wont charge him. If you are in Congress you’ve got it locked. Even assaulting a Police Officer is fine. That is unless you are a Republican.
Who would honestly look at him and think he’s a Marine? To begin with, the mustache and hair are unreg...the guy somehow has a Purple Heart but I don’t see a National Defense Service Ribbon...
Make that Service Medal...
He should have tried to look more like a Marine than Kaiser Wilhelm.
This turkey has no concept of honor, honesty or self esteem and it sounds like his friends are no better and he's an officer of the court. Sickening!
Thanks for posting this article, I'm happy to see something is finally being done about the phonies.
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