Tag Archives: Veteran’s Affairs

Emails: Michigan county’s veterans services director sought cash, gifts from veterans

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imageA county’s Veterans Affairs director in Michigan resigned Monday after emails were published in which he is shown to be demanding payment or other favors of veterans whom he had been helping with their health benefits.

In emails obtained by media outlets, former Calhoun County Veterans Affairs Office Director Scott Losey asked for “a few dead presidents,” “Christmas presents” and other gifts from those seeking the department’s help.

In one of the emails, dated Oct. 20, 2011, Losey wrote about the hard work he’d done at his own home for one veteran.

“We will discuss a gentleman’s agreement to compensate for my personal time,” Losey wrote. “I have worked cases for veterans who reside outside Calhoun County over the past couple of years with the same kind of agreement. I will not gouge you like your Social Security lawyer. Perhaps 7 to 10 percent is typically the agreement. I have had veterans screw me over big time as well. Does this sound cool?”

Read more at Stars and Stripes

See Also: Report: Top officials briefed on Phoenix VA woes before scandal erupted

More than 1,800 vets’ records intentionally destroyed or misfiled by 2 clerks

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The National Archives at St. Louis has shelving that reaches 29-feet high for the storage of military records.

The National Archives at St. Louis has shelving that reaches 29-feet high for the storage of military records.

By Robert Patrick
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS —More than 1,800 personnel records for U.S. veterans were destroyed or misfiled by two student employees of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis County, federal criminal court documents show.

One of the student employees, Lonnie Halkmon, 28, was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service. The other, Stanley Engram, 21, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 7. Both pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government records and faced probation to six months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.

Engram’s guilty plea says that 241 military records were found in the woods near the center on July 3, 2012, with 300 names and Social Security numbers visible on the documents.

The records were traced to Engram, who admitted disposing of the records found in the woods, “abandoning” files in the center and throwing them away at home. In all, he admitted destroying or purposely misfiling more than 1,000 records.

Read more at Stars and Stripes