A Riverside County man, Philip Abod, has been sentenced to one year in federal prison for orchestrating a scheme to defraud the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) of over $100 million. Abod and his co-conspirators, Michael Bostock and Eric Bostock, falsely claimed that veterans were attending educational programs at California Technical Academy (CTA) when they were not. They submitted fake records and manipulated veterans’ contact information to avoid detection. In total, they fraudulently obtained $32 million in tuition funds and $72 million in other government education-related benefits over a decade. Abod was also ordered to pay $3.4 million in restitution to the VA.

Best Coverage: https://kesq.com/news/2023/12/18/riverside-man-sentenced-for-100-million-va-scam/