A New Hampshire veteran has spent the past 20 years in a wheelchair to collect more than $660,000 in benefits for fake injuries after he was arrested while “walking normally” after visiting a VA office. He admitted that he spent time in detention.
Christopher Stoltz, 49, pleaded guilty Thursday to making false statements to the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2003 to collect a 100 percent disability rating. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Mr. Stolz's careful planning began in January 2003, when he told the Veterans Administration that he had lost the use of his hind legs and received a substantial evaluation.
100% disability rating current range It's $3,800 to $4,200 a month, but compensation has fluctuated over the years.
Mr. Stolz also received funding to purchase “specialized vehicles and vehicle adaptive equipment designed to assist veterans with mobility impairments” through the Veterans Administration's Vehicle Adaptive Equipment.
Stoltz, a kindergarten teacher at Antrim Elementary School, received $662,871.77 in veterans benefits to which he was not eligible between January 2003 and December 2022, authorities allege.
Before coming clean, Mr. Stolz had been seen and recorded numerous times walking without the need for a wheelchair or other walking aids.
In October 2021, Stults was seen using a wheelchair at the VA Medical Center in Jamaica Plain, Boston, shortly after lifting the wheelchair, putting it in a car, and driving away from the facility.
Afterwards, he went to a shopping mall and was seen walking there without a wheelchair.
Prosecutors said Stolz had been “subjected to repeated surveillance” since the first incident.
The veteran repeated his behavior a year earlier at a VA facility in Manchester, but this time in October 2022, he was recorded walking normally around the mall without any assistance. Ta.
Several people who knew Stolz until the early 2000s also told investigators they didn't know he needed a wheelchair or other walking aids.
When questioned by law enforcement officials about his athletic ability, Stolz admitted he had the use of both legs and was aware that he was fraudulently collecting additional benefits, documents show. .
The teacher was formally charged on September 13, 2023 with one count of making a false statement.
Stolz's sentencing date is set for May 6, 2024, and he could face up to five years in prison and three years of supervised release.
He could also be ordered to repay all the funds he fraudulently received over the years.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has begun cracking down on false claims over the years.
In September 2023, Paul John “PJ” Herbert was indicted by a federal grand jury and arrested on one count of government theft and one count of making false statements.
Herbert, a Marine Corps veteran, was accused of stealing more than $344,000 in military disability benefits and filed a Purple Heart application to compensate for injuries sustained in a roadside bombing that never occurred.
The veteran claimed he suffered a traumatic brain injury from an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while deployed to Iraq after the end of the Gulf War, but was “pretending” he was a decorated war hero injured in the war. It became clear. service line.
