A longtime resident of Yakima, Washington was sentenced by a federal court judge to eight years in prison on Dec. 12 and ordered to pay back the thousands of dollars he fraudulently received in Social Security disability benefits and other welfare. The man claimed to have been a Marine Corps veteran who was wounded in the Vietnam War, but authorities said the story was bogus.

The man, who was prosecuted under the name he used while living in Yakima but allegedly was born in Mexico under a different name, applied for Social Security disability in 1990 for injuries he claimed were sustained in combat. The benefits were granted and the man received more than $128,000 from the fund over 20 years, authorities said.

The man also received about $27,000 from state food stamps and medical assistance programs. He was caught when he attempted to apply for a passport in a Yakima post office in March 2010. Discrepancies in the application led to a federal investigation that discovered the man had been deported to Mexico in 1990 but sneaked back into the country. Claiming he was a Native American from Idaho, the man went undetected for decades.

The man claimed to be a Marine veteran, though the military has no record of his service. At his trial earlier this year, he became emotional while describing how he became injured in Vietnam and supposedly earned a Purple Heart. But on cross-examination, the defendant could not say his service number or recall the names of anyone he served with.

Source: The Yakima Herald-Republic, "Mexican national's long string of lies leads to prison," Chris Bristol, Dec. 13, 2011