Man Convicted of Disability Fraud Claims He's Actually Disabled

the story of an audacious fraud he said that after serving his country in the military he could no longer use his hands or his feet he couldn't even get out of bed to work he collected well over a million dollars in disability checks so what was he doing going roller skating and bungee jumping and what did he say when he got caught here's ABC's David Wright they say before you judge someone walk a mile in their shoes I'm numb right now I deal with tremors constantly or in Dennis Paulson's case run a 10K he lived a very active lifestyle all the while claiming that he was too sick to work not only too sick to work but too sick to get out of bed most days is it possible to be completely disabled one day and fully active the next that's the million-dollar question and then some he lived a life that changed depending on who he was around so when he's around doctors and people that were able to provide him benefits he gave the impression that he was wheelchair bound there's Paulson arriving at the VA for a checkup in his wheelchair but other times on his feet he appears to be walking just fine authorities decided to take a closer look at pulson they're very hard cases to develop that's how investigator Paul Lee got on the case you're following him yes just take out a camera start filming him that's his shooting pool shooting pool harmless enough right I mean is it possible that the maybe the symptoms comeing go he's being paid for 100% loss of use of hands and 100% loss of use of feet permanently in total so the fact that he's walking at all is a sign that consistent with what he had claimed uh to the VA for his benefit the VA dos out 60 billion a year in disability benefits mostly to Veterans wounded in the line of duty the vast majority of veterans are entitled to those benefits but complaints of fraud have nearly tripled over the past decade how common is a case like this all too common unfortunately come on now like the North Carolina postal worker whose workman's comp claim was undone by an appearance on The Price is Right or the New York City bus driver who claimed she couldn't drive because of a shoulder injury caught pounding the drums at a gig what makes Paulson's case unusual is that he got away with it for years by the time the VA finally caught up with him he'd been scamming the system for 20 years by the time he was caught he defrauded more than $1.6 million from the government checks that he actually got that he should not have 1.6 million 1.6 million the biggest piece of evidence against him didn't actually come from surveillance it came from his then wife's blog one thing is absent from the blog is canes and wheelchairs in your line of work is this a smoking gun yes I'm David rght nice to meet you even after he was caught and convicted Dennis Paulson agreed to sit down with Nightline while under house arrest to tell his side of the story what do you say to the people who see these pictures who watch those videos and say this guy is a faker I'm not faking anything I'm trying to fight this disease and try to get some kind of enjoyment out of life when I can he says it all started back in 1990 after serving just two years in the Navy he says he started getting symptoms I couldn't feel the left side of my face and I was having chest pains and I was 19 and I'm like oh my God am I having a heart attack he went to Bethesda naval hospital and the doctors had bad news they gave me a probable diagnosis of Ms a probable diagnosis probable diagnos what does that mean you might have MS bson got a second opinion at the National Institutes of Health within 5 minutes of him looking at the results of the Navy he goes you definitely have MS it was his ticket out of the Navy a medical retirement entitling him to 30% of his wages for life no questions asked but according to prosecutors Paulson did ask questions he also researched on the internet the symptoms and so he knew what to say to the doctors when he went in the way the system works the more disabled you are the more compensation you receive because you need more Ms is a degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system the symptoms tend to get worse over time and as they do Paulson would be entitled to more and more benefits from 19 1997 on Paulson convinced the VA he was 100% disabled unable to use his hands or feet unable to work unable to walk but the blog tells a very different story I mean look at these pictures you seem like a very active father you here you've got your boy in the swimming pool on the swing set y roller skating yep running playing football you see how I'm running I have Dro foot foot so when you see I'm not pushing off I know I'm not pushing off with that with that foot we'll spot you that one here you are on the beach Mr muscles yeah it's not a muscle disease that's what people don't understand it's not a muscle disease it's a neurological disease and yet you can bungee jump you can play baseball batting 300 and you ran this tough M struggled I struggled to that that's right Paulson actually competed in a Marine Corp tough mutter race how is it that you could be 100% disabled and run a race like that I mean if you're good enough to run that race surely you're good enough to work every job that I tried I couldn't do but I looked healthy enough to do it I'd go out and work at Lawn Doctor and try to open up the the fertilizer bags and the things would slip out of my hands but here I am I look healthy I I always fight this disease we wouldn't even be discussing this if I went to to Afghanistan or Iraq and got my legs blown off and had to wear Prosthetics and then you see people with prosthetics competing at the Invictus games surely you're not comparing yourself to those folks no that's a disease that's a problem that you can see is what I'm saying you can see that disability they get looked at as inspiring they're like that's great he's fighting through this but I get looked at like I'm a fraud because you can't see the disease you were never in combat you didn't even finish one tour of Duty no why does the military owe you a lifetime of benefits for 100% of your working life when you are fit enough to do all the active things that we can see you doing in those photographs because I'm service connected he's not a wounded warrior he's service connected at sentencing the judge ordered Paulson to pay back the 1 Point 6 million plus a huge fine and serve 41 months behind bars and no regrets I wish I'd never got diagnosed with Ms I'd give anything not to have this disease I believe you I believe you on that but you don't believe me on everything else tough it's tough to the jury didn't buy itury why should our viewers nobody on that jury has Ms I didn't get a fair trial because I didn't have a jury of my peers on that on that jury what do you mean the jury should have all had Ms at least one or two people should have had Ms on that on that jury for me to get a fair ruling I think the jury was certainly left with the impression that you were dealt a bad card and you played it for all it was worth not true at all not true at all the tragic part is there's a good chance that over time his Ms will progress to a point that he actually is totally disabled but having cheated the system it's not clear he'd be able to collect the benefits he would otherwise be entitled to I'm David Wright for Nightline in Columbia South Carolina

Channel: ABC News

Views: 2,039,994

Keywords: Dennis, Paulsen, Diagnosed, with, MS, Convicted, of, Disability, Fraud, collected, benefits, playing, sports, health, veteran, crime, abc, abcnews

Id: 5lfaPrLrwyY

Length: 8min 12sec (492 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 08 2016