Navy veteran Angela Farr pleaded guilty to faking health issues and lying about a car crash in a conspiracy to steal over $1 million in government funds, according to federal officials in Maryland.
Farr, a 36-year-old resident of Leonardtown, Maryland, organized the scheme to steal at least a combined $1,010,000 from the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Social Security Administration. She also collaborated with both her then-husband and her father, both military veterans, to attain over half a million dollars in benefits they weren’t entitled to, according to a Mar. 11 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.
According to court documents obtained by McClatchy News, Farr faked documentation stating that “Farr, her husband, and her father were homebound and required full-time assistance for basic tasks such as eating, bathing, and dressing,” and that the three suffered from “military service-connected traumatic brain injury and seizures.” However, the court document clarifies that “all three individuals lived ordinary, active lives.”
According to Farr’s plea agreement, the scheme began in 2009 with her discharge from the Navy, which she said resulted from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from an assault on duty. At the same time, Farr “falsely claimed to the VA that she was seriously injured in a traffic accident when she was struck by a drunk driver while driving on duty in 2006.”
Farr would go on to forge over 70 pages of Navy documents, “purportedly authored by criminal investigators, psychologists, and physical therapists,” resulting in the VA rating her as 70% disabled.
She filed false medical reports again in 2015. Her mother is accused of acting as her caregiver when VA representatives visited her home, which resulted in her disability rating increasing to 100%.
Farr also submitted exaggerated medical reports to the VA for her then-husband – who she divorced in 2017 – and her father. The two received $370,912 and $168,074, respectively, when neither were entitled to said funds.
Farr applied for social security benefits in 2016, claiming the same disabilities as the false VA reports. “In that application, Farr claimed that she was unable to work and was forced to medically retire, despite the fact that she was working for the Department of Defense at the time she applied,” reads the court report.
According to the attorney’s office, Farr has been ordered to pay restitution for the fraudulently obtained money. If convicted on all counts, she will face a maximum of 15 years in prison. Her sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 4.
