A Massachusetts man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly posing as a decorated U.S. Army veteran for more than three decades to collect benefits and medical care he was never entitled to, Townhall reports.
James D. Sommers was indicted on one count each of health care fraud, false statements and aggravated identity theft. Prosecutors say Sommers began impersonating a U.S. Army veteran who served honorably from 1979 to 1982 as early as 1994, using the man’s stolen identity to collect thousands of dollars in Social Security benefits along with nearly $30,000 in medical care and medications from VA facilities.
The scheme allegedly continued right up until this year. Investigators say Sommers most recently used the victim’s identity on Feb. 20, 2026, to obtain medical care at the VA Medical Center in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Sommers was first arrested in March 2026 at Soldier On, a transitional housing facility for veterans in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he had been staying under the stolen identity. He remains detained in federal custody.
Court documents allege Sommers racked up a separate criminal history under the victim’s name in New York State dating back to 1994, with convictions in 1997, 2001 and 2011 for offenses including criminal possession of stolen property, fare evasion, sale of a controlled substance, possession of a forged instrument, attempted grand larceny, grand larceny and forgery.
The case is under federal investigation as prosecutors build out the full scope of a fraud that ran, by their own account, for more than 30 years before it finally caught up with him.