In a case of stolen valor, Darold Maxfield, of North Little Rock, Arkansas, was sentenced to four months in federal prison and three years’ supervised release for submitting a falsified disability application to the VA and receiving more than $91,000 in disability payments. Maxfield filed for disability claiming he sustained psychological trauma after he recovered the remains of a cadet who died while conducting a land navigation exercise at the US Military Academy at West Point. He was enrolled at the US Military Academy Prep School when the incident occurred, but evidence proved he was not on the land navigation course at the time the cadet’s remains were located. The VA was alerted to the potential fraud in 2020 when it was discovered that the physician’s signature on the disability questionnaire had been copied and pasted onto Maxfield’s application from another document. The VA OIG and the Army Criminal Investigation Division investigated this case.
