Jurors on Friday convicted a Minnesota man of gathering $146,000 in federal advantages by falsely claiming to be a adorned Marine Corps veteran who was wounded in motion, captured and tortured in Iraq.
Mikhail Robin Wicker, 39, of Dilworth was discovered responsible in U.S. District Courtroom in St. Paul of wire fraud, mail fraud, utilizing a false army discharge certificates and fraudulent use of army medals in a scheme he ran from 2015 by means of 2020.
Wicker has been free on his personal recognizance since he first appeared in courtroom after being indicted. He now awaits sentencing, which has but to be scheduled.
On Thursday, Wicker testified and caught to his claims of being adorned Marine who served in Iraq and was wounded.
Marine veterans from Lima Firm additionally testified and mentioned Wicker by no means served with them. Among the many extra outstanding veterans who served in Lima Firm on the time Wicker claimed he did is Sen. Ruben Gallego, D- Ariz.
The unit Wicker claimed to have been part of “suffered a few of the highest casualties of the Iraq Conflict,” the indictment filed in April 2024 learn.
Federal brokers testified that searches throughout Marine Corps and Division of Protection databases confirmed there was no file of Wicker ever serving within the army. Somewhat, employment, pay, and state courtroom information positioned him in Michigan in the course of the years he claimed to be deployed to Iraq.
Photographs on his spouse’s Fb web page confirmed Wicker in full Marine gown uniform throughout what she mentioned was their marriage ceremony day in 2017. One other picture confirmed Wicker with a Marine emblem tattooed on his proper forearm.
On the time he was charged, Wicker was a behavioral intervention specialist with the Moorhead Space Public Faculties. He left the district on April 30, 2024, 4 weeks after he was indicted, a district spokeswoman mentioned Friday.
His scheme began to unravel in January 2020, when he utilized for a rise in incapacity advantages, a prosecution pretrial temporary learn. The appliance included a letter from Wicker during which he mentioned numerous features about of his supposed service, his claimed deployment, and his accidents.
“This newest submission prompted VA workers to look extra carefully at Wicker’s information,” the prosecution temporary revealed. “In evaluating Wicker for the rise in incapacity advantages, the workers had been unable to find information for Wicker in numerous databases.”
Wicker claimed he was taken prisoner in 2005 whereas serving in Iraq and held captive for greater than a month. He additionally mentioned he suffered post-traumatic stress and different accidents from an improvised explosive machine assault in Iraq.
Wicker submitted cast and falsified paperwork when he utilized for veterans advantages. They included certificates verifying his army discharge and that he had acquired the Purple Coronary heart. He additionally claimed to have acquired the Prisoner of Conflict Medal, the Marine Good Conduct Medal, the Nationwide Protection Service Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Abroad Service Ribbon and the Iraq Marketing campaign Medal.
Consequently, regardless of by no means having served, he was paid $146,287 in well being care, incapacity compensation and academic advantages whereas attending North Dakota State College.
“As a part of his yearslong scheme, Wicker interacted not solely with workers on the VA, but in addition contacted reliable Marines who really served in Lima Firm,” the prosecution pretrial temporary learn. “Wicker … despatched messages on Fb claiming to recollect sure individuals and asking for particulars that he claimed to overlook.”
Different particulars Wicker claimed had been that a part of his time within the Marines included being interrogated and tortured whereas a prisoner, he was educated as a sniper, and he was honorably discharged in January 2006 due to his accidents.
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