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Federal prosecutors say the Pittsfield man has posed as an Army veteran since the 1990s to receive VA care and other government benefits.
A Pittsfield man has been arrested and charged with impersonating a U.S. Army veteran for more than three decades to get government benefits and medical care, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
James D. Sommers, whose age was not released, was charged with one count of making false statements, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
Sommers was arrested Thursday in Pittsfield, where authorities say he had been living under the victim’s identity at Soldier On, a facility that provides transitional housing for military veterans. He remains in federal custody and is scheduled to appear in federal court on Monday, prosecutors said.
According to charging documents, Sommers allegedly began impersonating a real U.S. Army veteran as early as 1994. That veteran served honorably in the Army from 1979 to 1982, prosecutors said.
Authorities say Sommers used the veteran’s stolen identity to collect thousands in Social Security benefits and nearly $30,000 in medical care and prescription medications through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Most recently, on Feb. 20, Sommers allegedly used the victim’s identity for treatment at the VA Medical Center in Northampton.
Investigators also say Sommers amassed multiple criminal convictions in New York state under the victim’s name between 1994 and 2011. Those offenses include criminal possession of stolen property, sale of a controlled substance, forgery, attempted grand larceny, and grand larceny, according to charging documents.
If convicted, Sommers faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000, prosecutors said.
Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.
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