Looks Like This Veteran Didn't Need His Wheelchair After All

Prosecutors say New Hampshire's Christopher Stultz lied about disability to get $660K in benefits
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 27, 2024 11:30 AM CST
Prosecutors: Vet Faked Disability for $660K in Benefits
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/KAMPUS)

A New Hampshire veteran has admitted to faking his need for a wheelchair for 20 years to claim more than $660,000 in benefits he wasn't entitled to. Christopher Stultz, 49, of Antrim pleaded guilty in US District Court on Thursday to one count of making false statements. He faces a maximum prison term of five years when he's sentenced May 6. The US attorney's office said that, beginning in 2003, Stultz claimed he could no longer use his feet, causing the Department of Veterans Affairs to rate him as 100% disabled and increase his monthly benefits. He was also given money to buy and adapt special cars, per the AP.

Prosecutors said Stultz was "surveilled on multiple occasions" walking normally. In 2021, he used a wheelchair while inside a VA medical center in Boston, but after leaving, he stood up and lifted the wheelchair into his car, then drove to a mall and walked around various stores, prosecutors said. They said he did a similar thing after leaving a Manchester VA medical center the following year. Several witnesses also reported they'd never known Stultz to use a wheelchair over the past 20 years, prosecutors said.

(More veterans stories.)

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