Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA) – Around 2,803 individuals were implicated in a bogus veteran benefit fraud scheme committed in East Nusa Tenggara Province, Chairman of BPMKH-VRI veteran rights’ association Stefanus Nahak stated.

“An estimated 2,803 bogus veterans were registered, and we discovered a case in which around 2,578 bogus registrations were done on a single day. The registered data is clearly fictitious because the registration for veterans’ benefits concluded by the 2008-2009 period,” Nahak noted here on Saturday.

He said his organization had in possession the complete data and documents on the bogus veterans’ fraud scheme from several regions in Timor Island, East Nusa Tenggara.

He explained the fraud scheme began by forging identity data before submitting the false data to the central government. The data was falsified to make it appear as though it was produced in 2009 and to make it more authentic, he revealed.

Nahak alleged that some individuals from the Directorate for Veteran Affairs of the Defense Ministry were involved in the practice.

“We also reported 12 officers from the military police centre of the Army to the police. We have the complete documents for evidence, and I have submitted them to the authority,” he remarked.
He believes that the suspects might have also committed extortion after a report surfaced that they had requested a sum of money for individuals seeking to be registered as veterans.

“The names registered on the fraud scheme are mostly not of veterans. They are not involved in any battle for the country to be conferred the veteran title. Individuals seeking registration as a veteran were even told to pay a huge sum of money,” he stated.

Nahak noted that the fraud scheme was a crime against the nation, as the veterans’ benefits were being distributed to ineligible people. He also expressed hope that the central government would conduct a systematic investigation to apprehend all parties involved in the bogus veteran fraud scheme.

Source: ANTARA News