RI woman went all in on military fraud, buying medals, uniform, becoming commander of VFW

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sarah-jane-cavanaugh-charged-posing-wounded-marine-corps-veteran/




Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Zachary Cunha said Sarah Jane Cavanaugh, 31, of Warwick, is charged with using forged or counterfeited military discharge certificates, wire fraud, fraudulently holding herself out to be a medal recipient with intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefit, and aggravated identity theft.

There is no record of Cavanaugh ever serving in the U.S. military, Cunha said.

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Cavanaugh worked at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence. She's accused of accessing the records for a Marine who utilizes VA services and using them to falsify military discharge documents, and also using her work email to purchase and later display on a Marine uniform a Purple Heart and Bronze Star, according to court documents.

Cavanaugh did so to request financial assistance and falsely claim that she was being treated for lung cancer from exposure to burn pits in war zones and inhaling particulate matter from a bomb explosion, Cunha said.

Posing as a combat veteran, Cavanaugh collected $207,000 from the Wounded Warrior program to pay for groceries and physical therapy, collected about $18,500 in financial assistance from "Code of Support" in Virginia for mortgage payments, repairs to her home furnace, a gym membership and other bills, and $4,700 from a fundraising website, Cunha said.

Claiming to be a Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipient, Cavanaugh collected $16,000 from another charity that provides therapy for veterans through art programs, CreatiVets, according to court documents.

[Enter stage left]

1. Give her a cap gun and send her to Ukraine.

[Grokenstein]

7. Better still, send her to Moscow

Let Vladimir send her to Ukraine.

[qazplm135]

2. oof

Sad. That money would have gone to someone else actually deserving.

[madaboutharry]

3. That was quite a scheme.

Some people are completely corrupted.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

4. A Republicon no doubt.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Many stolen valor confrontations

Many stolen valor confrontations

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stolen+valor

[Demovictory9]

9. and hers is the biggest...she went all out

[dchill]

6. Seriously - how is she related to Brett?

[AngryOldDem]

8. That...is disgusting. EOM.

[Demovictory9]

10. .so many red flags.. a female marine put them together: Wearing insignia wrong, out of reg earrings

marine was public affairs officers at time Cavanaugh claimed to have been injured and dragged her buddies to safety... female in this circumstance would have been story she would have heard about.

Cavanaugh is too young to have served during the time claimed and would have only been 16 at the time she claimed to have entered the marines.

So many inconsistencies.. I wonder that others didnt catch on

[AngryOldDem]

11. All people see is a wounded vet.

Her counting on that for her scam makes this even more shameless. This quote at the end of the story: “I was in pain for her. I listened to her, everything a nurse should do," she said. "She not only abused that, she took my compassion and lied. Meanwhile we could have put our services elsewhere. That's what bothers me."

Vets, too, have an eye for these poseurs. A few years ago here, a guy showed up at a high school graduation in full dress uniform with decorations. Another vet noticed one of his medals was fake. This caused stolen valor offenses to be added to our criminal code.