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Kamil Wakulik, 38, lied when he claimed that he'd suffered PTSD from active-duty service that included having to recover human remains following natural disasters in the Philippines and Thailand, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
Wakulik, who lives in the Morris County community of Long Valley and was in the Corps from 2003 to 2007, wasn't involved in such operations, the U.S. attorney said.
Based on his claim, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs "increased Wakulik’s disability rating and provided additional monthly disability benefit payments totaling over $118,000," he said.
Wakulik was being investigated when he texted a message to an agent with the VA Office of Inspector General "threatening physical violence against the agent and any other agent involved" in the probe, Sellinger said.
Rather than risk the consequences of a guilty verdict in a trial, Wakulik took a deal from the government.
He pleaded guilty via videoconference with a federal judge in Newark on Tuesday, Jan. 10, to theft of government funds and interstate transmission of a threat of injury.
U.S. Magistrate Judge José R. Almonte scheduled sentencing for D-Day, June 6.
Sellinger, meanwhile, credited special agents of the Northeast Field Office of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General with the investigation leading to the plea secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Baker of his Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit in Newark.
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