Vasil (who has no professional law enforcement and VA benefit adjudication experience) disingenuously told Roberts he would look into the fraud accusation against the VA, but Vasil appears to have had no intention of investigating the VA, but rather investigated Roberts who was making waves at the VA amid his angry accusations.
Throughout the VA investigation the Roberts family was subjected to a smirking, mocking demeanor by Vasil, the man whose investigation formed the basis of the later criminal indictment.
Said one hostile veteran advocate, “A cop Vasil is not, just an idiot with a badge.”
VA Federal Law
Veteran-advocacy groups deride the delivery of health care and disability benefits to our veterans today as just another example of Bush administration incompetence in administering government services and entitlements to which it is ideologically hostile, a la FEMA and disaster relief.
The VA, a large department of government growing under the strain of war and non-existent administration planning for the consequences of war, is operating under the authority of specific federal statutes—Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 38, “Pensions, Bonuses and Veterans Relief.”
Title 38 specifically defines and delineates the processing and delivery of VA benefits.
In fact, Title 38 (3.901 Fraud) also specifically defines “fraud” (what Roberts is accused of engaging in) as a false or fraudulent act committed in trying to obtain “any claim for benefits under any of the laws administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs … “
But Keith Roberts was never accused of committing VA fraud, per se.
Roberts’ voluminous C-file, or claims file, well documents Roberts “stressors” that led to his being granted disability benefits—rendering accusing Roberts of VA fraud out of the question, so the offended Special Agent Vasil swiftboated the veteran Roberts.
“Keith Roberts was granted a 100% compensation rate for PTSD from his date of claim. To grant PTSD, we need both a) a current diagnosis and b) a verified in-service stressor. We found not only a stressor, but an in-service diagnosis for Airman Roberts,” said a source at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee who e-mailed the Lee Rayburn radio show in Madison after a broadcast of a show on Roberts.
In other words, to an experienced and objective VA civil servant, Roberts’ claim was an air-tight.
But Roberts was to become a cautionary tale for Vietnam-era veterans who apply for PTSD disability benefits and carp about the slow and often hostile nature of the VA bureaucracy after Special Agent Vasil’s investigation of Roberts in an as yet unknown manner came to the attention of the US Department of Justice and US Atty Stephen Biskupic (Eastern District of Wisconsin).
Biskupic, not known for his prosecutorial discretion and hungry to augment his win/loss record, took over the case and secured criminal indictments against Roberts in 2005.
Special Agent Raymond Vasil
After Roberts contacted the VA Inspector General’s office and spoke to Vasil, Vasil reportedly became upset with Roberts making the fraud accusations and seized Roberts’ VA claims file from the VA regional office in Milwaukee, according to a document in Roberts’ VA file dated Dec. 12, 2003.
Throughout the VA investigation the Roberts family was subjected to a smirking, mocking demeanor by Vasil, the man whose investigation formed the basis of the later criminal indictment.
Said one hostile veteran advocate, “A cop Vasil is not, just an idiot with a badge.”
VA Federal Law
The VA, a large department of government growing under the strain of war and non-existent administration planning for the consequences of war, is operating under the authority of specific federal statutes—Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 38, “Pensions, Bonuses and Veterans Relief.”
Title 38 specifically defines and delineates the processing and delivery of VA benefits.
In fact, Title 38 (3.901 Fraud) also specifically defines “fraud” (what Roberts is accused of engaging in) as a false or fraudulent act committed in trying to obtain “any claim for benefits under any of the laws administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs … “
But Keith Roberts was never accused of committing VA fraud, per se.
Roberts’ voluminous C-file, or claims file, well documents Roberts “stressors” that led to his being granted disability benefits—rendering accusing Roberts of VA fraud out of the question, so the offended Special Agent Vasil swiftboated the veteran Roberts.
“Keith Roberts was granted a 100% compensation rate for PTSD from his date of claim. To grant PTSD, we need both a) a current diagnosis and b) a verified in-service stressor. We found not only a stressor, but an in-service diagnosis for Airman Roberts,” said a source at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee who e-mailed the Lee Rayburn radio show in Madison after a broadcast of a show on Roberts.
In other words, to an experienced and objective VA civil servant, Roberts’ claim was an air-tight.
But Roberts was to become a cautionary tale for Vietnam-era veterans who apply for PTSD disability benefits and carp about the slow and often hostile nature of the VA bureaucracy after Special Agent Vasil’s investigation of Roberts in an as yet unknown manner came to the attention of the US Department of Justice and US Atty Stephen Biskupic (Eastern District of Wisconsin).
Biskupic, not known for his prosecutorial discretion and hungry to augment his win/loss record, took over the case and secured criminal indictments against Roberts in 2005.
Special Agent Raymond Vasil
After Roberts contacted the VA Inspector General’s office and spoke to Vasil, Vasil reportedly became upset with Roberts making the fraud accusations and seized Roberts’ VA claims file from the VA regional office in Milwaukee, according to a document in Roberts’ VA file dated Dec. 12, 2003.
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