An Army veteran and former Lewis County resident faces up to 20 years in prison after lying about having to use a wheelchair and receiving about $683,000 in disability benefits by exaggerating his post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.
Kevin Paul McMains, 43, of Pace, Florida, pleaded guilty Oct. 25 to theft of government money and two counts of making false statements.
The former is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while each of the latter carries a maximum term of five years. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court in Pensacola on Jan. 17, 2024.
From May 2009 to February 2023, McMains received about $683,000 in unwarranted payouts from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, the Justice Department said in a statement Monday.
McMains left the Army on April 27, 2009, after about eight years. The following day, he received a 100% disability rating from the VA for PTSD, the statement said.
But McMains had exaggerated the severity of his PTSD by altering a VA form that was submitted to a mental health counselor, the Justice Department said. The 100% disability rating was based on fraudulent information.
In 2019, McMains falsely told the VA that "he had been severely injured in an explosion while serving in Iraq, which he claimed resulted in paralysis and his confinement to a wheelchair since 2007," the statement said.
He lied to the VA again in 2021, when he said he could not drive because of his injuries, according to court documents.
As of December 2022, monthly benefits for a 100% disability rating range from $3,621 to $4,148, depending on the recipient's family size, according to the VA. The compensation is not taxable.
McMains told his story in a 2013 article about a retreat for veterans with PTSD by the Kitsap Daily News in Washington state.
He told the newspaper that from October 2006 to November 2007, he was a sergeant stationed in Baghdad, where he oversaw the helipad where helicopters landed with injured soldiers.
The story said that, "for a time, he was paralyzed and spent more than a year recovering" in Texas. Stars and Stripes was not immediately able to verify those details.
McMains gave a similar account to a Chronicle reporter during an event to mark the end of the war in Iraq in 2011.
McMains, 31 at the time, said he was hit with a 120 mm rocket while in Iraq in 2007, suffering spinal cord injuries, TBI (trauma caused by the brain rattling around in the skull) and severe post-traumatic stress disorder.
At the time, he was serving as post adjunct for the American Legion Post 171 "Storm King" in Mineral.
McMains spoke about time he said he spent at an Iraq combat hospital.
"I saw everything from a broken toe to a bag of mush," he claimed.
McMains is a 1999 graduate of Morton High School, he said in 2011.
Information from The Chronicle’s archives was included in this report.
