Grant County Man Charged with 2 Decades of Vet Benefit Thefts
US Attorney's Office officials in Spokane say the suspect used the ID of a real veteran for over two decades, even after the man passed away.
Grand Jury charges man with fraud
The suspect, Raymond Kenneth Musgrove, whom the court said was formerly from Grant County, is accused of using the real veteran's ID and some personal data to receive hundreds of thousands of illegal benefits. According to the US Attorney's office:
" The Indictment alleges that Raymond Kenneth Musgrove posed as J.M.C., a real person and military veteran, for several decades, collecting Veterans Affairs Compensation Payments and receiving healthcare at the VA in the name of J.M.C. According to the Indictment, Musgrove has purported to be J.M.C. since at least 1997, in the process collecting over $825,000 in federal funds from the VA to which he was not entitled."
The real J.M.C passed away in 2018, and the VA (Veterans Affairs) terminated the benefits to Musgrove several times, but the suspect reached out to officials and was able to convince them J.M.C. was 'still living.' He was successfully able to do this several times until the fraud finally caught up with him.
The US Attorney's office has charged Musgrave with false representation of a social security number, wire fraud, theft of government funds, and aggravated identity theft, and he could likely be looking at at least a 20-year Federal prison term.
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