All language subtitles for American Greed s12e05 Stolen Valor Scam

In this episode of American Greed,
Captain Daryl Wright has a purple heart

isn't afraid to show it.

Daryl used his purple heart, flaunted
it, and he weaponized it.

As a wounded warrior, Wright collects
more than $700 ,000 in government

until an undercover investigation
unravels this hero's story.

99 .9 % of that stuff is not true. That
did not happen.

I think he enjoyed getting free money.

We started to refer to this as the
Purple Heart fraudster case.

Wright's victims are veterans who feel
their sacrifices have been tarnished by

his lies.

Their valor has been stolen.

It's like a stab in the heart and then
twisting it deeper. That's how it feels.

In 2005, the Iraq War is grinding on
with no end in

sight.

Daryl Wright, then a lieutenant with the
Idaho National Guard, is just one of

140 ,000 American troops serving here.

But he stands out.

First thing you notice when you meet
Daryl Wright is how incredibly tall he

I mean, this guy's, I don't know how
tall he is, but he's the tallest guy

ever met in the Army.

Wright's job is helping turn local
Iraqis into a lean, mean fighting force.

Basic tasks, how to shoot a weapon, how
to play grenades, how to do whatever.

I just started to teach them like a mini
boot camp.

Brad Awney, Wright's first sergeant,
works closely with him.

We got along great. You know, he was
good with the troops. He was good with

staff. He was good with me.

You know, we used to give each other a
hard time because he's a Seahawk fan and

I'm a Viking fan.

You know, that type of thing. And, you
know, other than that, I mean, yeah, he

seemed like a fine officer at that
point.

He was an intern with us, and as the
internship was ending, he got deployed.

Kathleen Simcoe is Wright's former boss
back in Boise, Idaho.

She and her co -workers are sorry to see
the National Guardsman go, but they

know it's his duty, and they let Wright
know he's in their thoughts.

Several times the group would chip in
together and donate things for a care

package, and we sent him things like
Twizzlers, and we sent him, I think, a

whole series of cheers, and he really
appreciated it and shared things with

unit, and so I did. I kept in touch with
him.

80s television and junk food can help
fill long stretches of boredom. But

the lulls, there are flashes of danger.

The spring and summer of 2005 is one of
the war's deadliest periods.

A time of runaway insurgents, roadside
IEDs, and suicide bombings.

Iraq is kind of like Russian roulette,
you know.

It's not if it's when you're going to be
hit kind of thing. So there's always

going to be something to worry about,
you know, every day.

On August 30th, 2005, Darryl Wright is
standing next to Sergeant Awney,

At 1 .30 in the afternoon, the calm is
pierced by a dreadful sound.

We hear the...

You know, the whistle whipped by us, and
then there was a second one, you know,

shortly after, so it was like
simultaneous almost.

And then, you know, boom, boom.

It's a rocket attack hitting their base.

Wright will later report that rubble and
debris from the impact showered the sky

and rained down on him and the other
troops.

He writes that he was violently thrown
and knocked unconscious from the

percussion of the rocket's impact.

Wright says the rocket's wreck is
Humvee, seen here immediately after the

attack.

But Wright is not hospitalized.

As Awney sees it, Wright suffers no
obvious injuries.

And two months later, in October 2005,
their unit returns home.

When Daryl came back and came to work
with us, Daryl was still Daryl. In fact,

if anything, I think he was a little bit
more outgoing.

Kathleen Simcoe, who comes from a long
line of military veterans, sees no

apparent signs of post -traumatic stress
in her friend.

She says Wright does not seem anxious or
high -strung.

He fit into the team, was just
wonderful. There was no performance

whatsoever, no concerns.

Nothing but positive accolades. I didn't
see any change in him.

I didn't see any injuries, anything at
all.

Darla McDaniel is Wright's former
partner and the mother of his daughter.

She has a similar take.

After his time in Iraq, Wright seems, if
anything, changed for the better.

He was trying.

He was doing what he could to be a part
of our daughter's life and be a better

dad than what he had been in the past.

I mean, I always wanted our daughter to
have a dad, obviously, to have that

presence in her life.

And it was nice that he was there for
her.

By all appearances, Ride is thriving.

So much so that he decides to take a job
in his hometown of Seattle, which has

more opportunities in his field of urban
planning and economic development.

I remember distinctly what I said.

If I give Daryl a bad evaluation or
reference, can I keep him?

Because I didn't want to lose him. He
was great. He was doing great work. He

with our team.

And I just didn't want to have to hire a
replacement because he did such a good

job and he was such a good fit.

Wright lands an $80 ,000 a year job,
working for the Federal Department of

Economic Development in its Seattle
office.

When I first met him, I thought he was
personable.

He was easy to talk to.

He was friendly.

C .J. Jackson works with Wright in the
Economic Development Office, where she

manages human resources.

Although she allows American Greed to
use her real name, Jackson asks that we

obscure her face.

She says she is afraid of retaliation
from Wright.

Jackson's experience working with Wright
is very different than Kathleen

Simcoe's.

She says Wright takes more time off than
anyone else in the office.

And over time, his absences only
increase.

At some point,

I ran into him in the hallway and, I
mean, I haven't seen him in a while.

And so I said, oh, hey, stranger, how
are you? I didn't know you still worked

here.

Jackson says Wright blames his absences
from work on a variety of physical

injuries and mental impairments stemming
from his service in Iraq.

He himself disclosed a lot of the things
that he was suffering from.

to anybody who would listen.

Ultimately, he got to a point where he
says that he can't work.

He can't even get up. He can't get out
of bed.

He's afraid of crowds, that he can't get
on public transportation.

Eventually, Darryl Wright takes so much
paid time off from the federal

government that any additional time he
takes off must be unpaid.

But Wright concocts a clever way to get
the time off and still collect a

paycheck.

He submits paperwork saying his National
Guard unit has called him up on an

emergency order.

He must answer the call of duty.

But the emergency order doesn't look
right to CJ Jackson.

I could tell well enough that...

A military order that was dated six
months prior to deployment could

considered emergency.

That was when things started being
questionable to me.

Jackson drives down to Tacoma to visit
Wright's National Guard unit at Camp

Murray. She asks an officer about the
order Wright has submitted.

He came out and he said, well, this
is...

Embarrassing because we don't have
copies of these documents in our files.

And with good reason. The order is
bogus.

He cut and pasted. Basically, that's
what he did. Cut and pasted military

orders.

Up next, Daryl Wright applies for and
receives one of the nation's highest

honors for wounded warriors.

But C .J. Jackson learns what can happen
when you blow the whistle on a purple

heart.

And at first I didn't believe that,
because I was saying, well, this guy

falsified documents.

Why am I the one in trouble?

In Seattle, Iraq veteran Delroy Wright
has forged paperwork allowing him to

work and still get paid.

It's a brazen fraud, according to
Assistant U .S. Attorney David Jennings.

It is a serious crime, and I remember
when it came in that I walked down the

hall and talked to a couple of people
who had served in the military and asked

them just how outrageous it was to
fabricate orders, whether it happened

time or something that would...

deadly serious, and they all confirmed
it was serious.

Nobody does that.

The Department of Defense begins to cut
ties with Daryl Wright.

They confirmed that he has committed
fraud, and that would end his career in

military.

Since Wright has no future in the
military, he goes to work rewriting his

First, he applies for and receives

The Combat Action Badge. It's a
relatively new award established in 2005

honor service during active enemy fire.

Then, Wright applies for one of the most
prestigious U .S. military honors, the

Purple Heart, which is reserved for
those injured or killed on the

They earn that. I mean, that's one of
those medals you don't want, but you

happen to get it just depending on the
situation you're in.

And it's held in high regard because
that is a sacrifice that you've given to

your country. You've given a part of
yourself or you've left blood on the

battlefield or whatever.

That's held in high esteem.

A doctor diagnoses Wright with traumatic
brain injury.

Suffered during that rocket attack on
August 30, 2005.

The injury paves the way for Wright
being awarded the Purple Heart on March

2011.

He was a proud Purple Heart recipient.

He had it displayed prominently in his
home. He would show it to people. He

would mention it to people. I think most
people in this country would say that's

kind of an exalted position in our
society, as it should be.

And I think he liked getting that
attention.

He went so far as having Purple Heart
license plates on his vehicles.

So he was clearly somebody that was
proud to have people see that and

the fact that he has a Purple Heart and
was awarded a Purple Heart.

But at work, things aren't going well
for Wright.

The Inspector General of the Commerce
Department following up on Jackson's

Begins investigating Wright for forging
the military order.

But Wright isn't about to go quietly.

Somebody from the union actually
contacted me and said, Hey, C .J., you

keep your eye out because this guy is
filing a complaint against you.

Wright hires a lawyer and claims that C
.J. Jackson is harassing him.

and discriminating against him because
he's a wounded warrior.

So he deflected the attention away from
him.

And then zeroed in on me.

And at first I didn't believe that,
because I was saying, well, this guy

falsified documents.

Why am I the one in trouble?

Jackson says she has the support of her
immediate superiors.

But at Washington, D .C. headquarters,
according to Jackson, it's a different

story.

My agency, because he's a disabled vet,
they took his story over mine.

Jackson runs up nearly $30 ,000 in legal
fees.

She loses sleep, becomes anxious and
depressed.

At one point...

The agency recommends Jackson be
suspended for 30 days for allegedly

rights privacy by disclosing to the
National Guard that he suffers from post

-traumatic stress disorder.

I was way out in left field all by
myself and spending money on

legal fees out of my own pocket.

I thought I was protecting the interests
of the government.

For crying out loud, this guy was
falsifying documents so that he couldn't

paid.

After six years of strife, the case is
resolved.

Wright obtains a severance from commerce
that includes disability payments.

Jackson keeps her job, but not without a
psychological toll.

I go to bed every night and say, why?

What did I do wrong?

When I wasn't the one falsifying
documents, why was I the one on the run

one fighting for my job?

The power that he wielded as a wounded
veteran, a decorated veteran, made his

word gospel.

That was at least until Joe Rogers got
on the case.

Next on American Greed.

A dogged investigator uncovers the tale
of two Daryls.

My job is to keep digging.

And I get paid to not go away.

In downtown Seattle...

Joe Rogers is a special agent with the
Inspector General for the Social

Administration.

His job is to root out fraud, waste, and
abuse in disability claims.

We get a lot of allegations of people
that either don't disclose to Social

Security that they're working or they're
over -embellishing their disability or

they're faking their disability
altogether.

So those are the types of things that we
investigate.

Agent Rogers gets a tip.

There may be something suspicious in the
file of Daryl Lee Wright.

Ms. Wright first filed in 2010, and he
told Social Security that his

disabilities were pretty severe, that he
couldn't get out of bed several days a

week, he had trouble walking, he used a
cane, he couldn't feed himself, he

couldn't tie his shoes, he couldn't
manage his belt, button his pants.

Those are claims of somebody that's very
seriously disabled.

One fact jumps out.

When Wright files this claim in 2010, he
is still working for, or at least on

the payroll of, the Department of
Commerce.

To investigators, his disability claim
seems inconsistent with holding down an

$80 ,000 a year federal job.

He was so disabled from his PTSD and
traumatic brain injury that he couldn't

anything.

and couldn't think for a period of time
of more than five seconds.

Reading the file, Agent Rogers sees how
Wright presents himself to the

government.

Now he wants to see for himself.

We're in Snoqualmie, Washington, and
we're up in Snoqualmie Ridge, which is

residential part of Snoqualmie. It's a
newer part of the town, and most people

live here.

kind of in the Bellevue, Seattle area,
because it's a great place to raise a

family. There's schools and things in
the neighborhoods, a lot of kids.

And this is the street that Mr. Wright
lives on.

In fact, his house is right across the
street here, the blue house with the

white trim.

So I came out here to see if I could
observe him, and if I observed him, how

really functions. He also told Social
Security to use a cane.

I expected to see somebody that, if I
did see him, he'd be out here in a

awful state using a cane.

Rogers notes that Daryl Wright, seen
here in surveillance video taken by

investigators, mows the lawn, does yard
work, and comes and goes from his house

on a regular basis.

He never used a cane. He certainly
didn't move with any sort of hesitation

appear to be certainly disabled or
disabled at all for that matter, but

certainly not as disabled as was
represented in Social Security in the

paperwork.

Talking to people in Snoqualmie, Rogers
learns Wright is a member of Rotary.

He belongs to the country club, and he
serves on the local planning commission.

Well, it was a tale of two Daryls.

We learned that nearly everyone spoke
highly of him, talked about his

intelligence, talked about his ability.

And so, you know, that was completely
different from the Daryl Wright that was

being represented in all of his
applications for benefits.

And our daughter enjoyed spending time
with him.

Wright's former partner, Darla McDaniel,
shares custody of her daughter with

Daryl Wright.

Though Wright tells the government he
can't operate a car, he drives alone for

seven hours straight to Boise, at least
once a month to spend a few days with

his daughter.

She adored him because he was kind of
the fun dad.

He was able to just do all the fun
things with her.

Agent Rogers talks to some of Wright's
friends, including James Rowe, a local

high school coach.

Rowe has been friends with Wright for 30
years, since the two played high school

basketball.

My neighbor called me and goes, looks
like you got the FBI in your driveway.

I said, I do.

Rogers, working with an FBI agent,
learns that Wright is an assistant

coach, touted in the team newsletter as
D .L.

Stallion Wright.

He gets out on the court, too.

playing basketball with a group of
friends on Monday nights.

After the games, Wright and Rowe go out
for beers.

So when they came and asked me, does he
need a cane to walk into the gym, I'm

thinking, well, this is a loaded
question. These guys are just going to

I'm lying for him.

Because obviously if he's playing
basketball, he's not walking into the

a cane.

Then they said, when you guys go next
door and eat pizza and drink beer, does

someone have to feed him?

And I'm like... No, he can drink beer
pretty well on his own, so there's no

over there feeding him.

Rowe says he and his buddy go to
Mariners baseball games, camp with their

daughters, and fish and crab in the
islands of Puget Sound.

But Rowe paints a slightly different
picture of Daryl Wright than some other

sources.

While others say Wright comes back from
Iraq more relaxed, Rowe interprets that

mellowness as...

Melancholy. Mopey and distant, and
sometimes when he's not engaged in

conversation, it's like he's staring off
into space, like there's something else

going on.

But, you know, it was definitely
different when he came back.

And while Wright joins Rotary, serves on
boards, and even plans to run for city

council in Snoqualmie, Rose's interview
shows that Wright has a rougher side.

Once, on a guy's weekend in a mountain
town, Wright and Rowe and several other

men are in a dive bar.

The bartender cuts Stallion Wright off
and takes away his pitcher of beer.

The ensuing melee is captured on a
security camera.

Dude coming after him, dude was big and
thick, and he kind of got to take his

pitcher, and Stallion started beating
him on the head with the pitcher, and

went to the ground, and the cook.

ran out from behind the kitchen and
kicked him in the head.

And they got it all on film.

Eventually, Wright is hauled out, all
six feet, ten inches of him, in a

fireman's carry.

Wright later sues the bar for allegedly
inflaming his PTSD symptoms.

The case is settled with neither side
accepting fault.

Up next, Daryl Wright goes to
Disneyland.

and walks into a trap of his own design.

Now, I don't know if you've ever ridden
Space Mountain Ride.

Not what you'd expect to be the favorite
ride of somebody suffering from severe

PTSD.

In Snoqualmie, Washington, Iraq veteran
Daryl Wright lives the dream.

And Uncle Sam foot the bill.

Special Agent Joe Rogers learns that
Wright collects as much as $10 ,000 a

from five different federal and state
agencies.

What became unusual in this case is the
farther we kept going, the farther we

kept digging, that there was just more
and more and more.

I think he liked not only the money, but
the ability to have what amounted to a

very good salary, over $100 ,000 a year.

I think a good deal of that was probably
tax -free as well, and not having to

work. But he could therefore devote his
time to other things that he would

rather be doing, whether it be on the
planning commission.

playing basketball, coaching basketball,
driving to Idaho to see his daughter

once a month, whatever it might be. I
mean, who wouldn't like that, right?

And all of Wright's applications for
benefits lean on his status as a wounded

warrior.

Daryl used his Purple Heart, flaunted
it, and he weaponized it. Any time he

could use it, any time he could bring it
up, any time he could use that episode.

He did so to the point where we started
to refer to this as the Purple Heart

Fraudster case.

In May of 2011, the VA launches a new
caregiver program.

It's designed to help compensate family
members of wounded warriors, some of

whom have had to quit jobs in order to
be full -time caregivers.

Wright sees an opportunity.

He enrolls his sister.

Karen Wright in the program.

And she collects a little more than $2
,000 every month.

She and Wright tell the government she's
at his home around the clock, feeding,

bathing, and clothing him.

When our VA personnel were trying to
call the caregiver in order to set up an

appointment to come see Daryl, they
often couldn't get a hold of the

You would think that a caregiver would
be at the person's house.

I never saw anybody that came to the
house to be his caregiver, and I never

his sister ever show up at the house in
any of the time I surveilled out here.

Rogers decides to use a bit of
subterfuge.

Hi, Gerald, how are you? Doing well.

An undercover agent approaches Wright,
saying he's investigating a totally

unrelated crime.

You're a tall man.

I am.

The hidden camera shows Wright moving
quite well.

And the undercover agent learns that
Wright is actively supporting his

girlfriend's political ambitions.

She's running for city council and
treasurer for her campaign and helping

Oh, wow. You are? Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah.

What does that entail? Just going door
to door. And we haven't started.

Next week will be the doorbell and
campaign.

By March 19, 2014, Joe Rogers is ready
to come out of the shadows and announce

his presence.

At 9 .30 a .m., he knocks on Wright's
front door.

Wright's girlfriend answers and takes
Rogers back to the master bedroom, where

he finds Wright in bed with the covers
pulled up to his chin.

Over three hours,

Rogers asks several versions of one
simple question.

How is Wright able to maintain such a
vigorous, active schedule?

He just flat out wouldn't answer those
questions, and the pieces of them he

would answer, it was very calculated in
the sense, well, that was just at one

time, and after I did that, I wasn't
able to function for days on end, and so

that's all I can answer that. But then
when pressed, he would stop answering

question.

Assistant U .S. Attorney Gregory Gruber
studies PTSD to see if there's any

possibility it could come and go as
Wright describes.

And from everything I've heard from the
experts we talked to, nurses, doctors,

psychologists, a severe case like what
Daryl claimed to have would be very

inconsistent with some of the stuff that
we saw him doing, that Joe Rogers found

him to be doing.

Perhaps no example is as telling as
Wright's trip to Disneyland with his

daughter. When we asked his daughter
what her dad's favorite ride was at

Disneyland, she said Space Mountain.

Now, I don't know if you've ever ridden
a Space Mountain ride, and it's been a

long time since I've been on it, but I
still remember it.

It was very dark. There's flashes of
light. There's noise. There's sudden

movements. There's people screaming.

Not what you'd expect to be the favorite
ride of somebody suffering from severe

PTSD like Daryl said.

For Wright's former partner, Darla
McDaniel, these trips stir up mixed

On the one hand, she's happy for her
daughter.

But he tended to try and make me feel
bad about it because I wasn't able.

to do those things with our daughter. I
had a job.

I was working full -time and raising her
and barely getting by.

And somehow, he wasn't working and able
to

afford all these things.

I just remember so many people in my
life asking me what he's doing. How is

living?

And I had no idea.

No. No way of figuring that out on my
own.

But the feds do.

They create a detailed timeline which
shows exactly where Daryl Wright and his

sister have been and what they've been
up to.

From the records that we had recovered,
which include bank records and travel

records and others, many times when the
VA personnel were trying to set up an

appointment to come do a home visit,
Daryl was in Boise, Idaho, and his

was at Walt Disney World. or he was on a
cruise, and his sister wouldn't set up

an appointment because she knew either
Daryl wasn't going to be there or she

couldn't be there.

So it was sort of a layer upon layer
upon layer of lies.

Up next, the explosive truth about that
rocket attack.

To see more from Agent Rogers'
undercover operation, head over to

.CNBC .com.

Kirkuk, Iraq, August 30th, 2005.

Daryl Wright says a rocket attack on
this day rattles his brain and

changes his life forever.

A couple of years ago, I got a call from
a federal investigator out of Tacoma,

Washington, saying, do you know a Darryl
Wright? And I'm like, yeah, he was

attached to us in Iraq.

And they're like, was he blown up and
knocked unconscious on the Iraqi army

in 2005?

And I'm like, no.

Brad Aune remembers that day well, but
not the way Wright remembers it.

I was standing right next to Darrell,
and his reaction was the same as mine. I

was like, oh, crap, you know, kind of
ducking in.

We just kind of like, you know, check it
out, waiting for the, okay, is there

any more coming? All right, we're good.

And then I said, okay, Lieutenant, you
call it in.

And then I just started checking on the
troops. Everybody was cool. Everybody

was doing the same thing. We were kind
of like, I wonder if there's more. Okay,

we're good.

Arnie says he and Wright, who are
training Iraqi troops, Use the explosion

teaching moment, an opportunity to study
the crater and calculate where the

rockets came from.

There was no debris. The debris field
was 100 meters and away from us.

There was nothing. It was so non
-eventful.

At that point, that was kind of not a
big deal.

Unfortunately, that's kind of how you
get used to something like that, you

The investigators discover that Wright
actually puts in two applications for a

combat action badge.

Wright's first version, filed while he
is still serving in Iraq, tells the

truth.

His original narrative statement said
that, I think the quote is, luckily

was no casualties or property damage
from that event.

He was denied a combat action badge for
that.

So, according to investigators, when
Daryl Wright gets back home, he decides

rewrite history.

He submitted a second one that described
that he had been blown off of his feet

by the blast, which changed everything
about it.

Jennings calls this Wright's
foundational lie.

And it works. Wright receives the Combat
Action Badge.

and then parlays that award into a
purple heart.

Arnie learns that his signature was
attached to Wright's false narrative.

I was furious.

And we really did a hell of a good job,
as far as I'm concerned, while we were

in Iraq, and to have someone throw our
good name under the bus and just start

creating all these documents with my
name on them.

You know, 99 .9 % of that stuff is not
true. That did not happen.

Other than that first paragraph on that
report, that's pretty much the rest is

all made up.

One big lie concerns the photo Wright
passes off as his wrecked Humvee.

Problem is, it's not his vehicle.

It's not even a National Guard Humvee.

It belongs to the Air Force.

Wright has apparently stolen another
soldier's story.

Stolen their suffering.

Stolen their valor.

Someone was probably pretty hurt in
that, so that's fairly shameful to use

vehicle and claim that whatever happened
there was your own or build your own

story around it.

Putting himself in for a Purple Heart,
doing all these things that are

the worst you could do when it comes to
being a soldier.

to throw your brothers under the bus, to
claim stolen valor. These kind of

things are the ones that just really
piss me off.

Up next, Daryl Wright's Day of
Reckoning.

They say karma's a bitch.

On January 29th, 2015, in the federal
courthouse in Tacoma, Washington,

Darryl Lee Wright is arraigned on nine
counts, including wire and mail fraud,

for allegedly stealing $737 ,000 worth
of government benefits.

His sister, Karen Wright, is also
indicted on one count of fraud.

Over three years of investigation,
Prosecutor David Jennings keeps in mind

particular person affected by Wright.

C .J. Jackson, the woman who blew the
whistle, only to experience a furious

backlash.

I can't speak for the others, but for
me, the hell she had to go through gave

motivation to keep digging and to keep
finding more to prove who Daryl Wright

really was.

to show that second Daryl Wright.

I think Mr. Wright was trying to create
a new person for whatever

reason he wanted to be, this decorated
war hero, military officer, and garner

the attention and automatic respect that
comes from that. And I think he didn't

really want to work traditionally. I
think he enjoyed getting free money.

And I think he just kind of wanted to do
what he wanted to do and the way he

wanted to do it.

Darryl Wright pleads guilty to two
counts of wire fraud.

His sister goes to trial, but the jury
is unable to reach a verdict.

She eventually pleads guilty to one
count of making a false statement.

Their fraud victimizes taxpayers, but
also veterans who fear their true war

stories have been tainted.

Their real struggles somehow diminished.

And they worry their efforts to get
benefits may now be harder.

And I always tell guys, you know, vets,
you've got to be your own advocate.

And we've got some guys that are pretty
good self -advocates in here.

Brad Awney, who served with Wright, now
works full -time as a veteran's advocate

and employment counselor in Fargo, North
Dakota.

For the most part, you'll get what you
deserve or what you earn.

But you got to, sometimes you got to
fight more. And you got to fight more.

squeaky wheel gets the grease. Yep.

And then that's right.

But then there's these guys in the way
here.

Well, this isn't a squeaky wheel. This
is a broken one.

Yeah, you get a broken wheel, like, you
know, right, that screws it up for the

rest of us. And I made this point a
couple times.

But that's the thing.

You know, he's going to.

It makes it harder for all the other
guys that have stuff coming.

Throughout this case, we were careful to
make sure that when we were prosecuting

Daryl Wright for his lies, that we were
careful about making sure we didn't do

damage to all the progress that's been
made in educating people about PTSD.

And all I can say to that is that Daryl
Wright didn't fail to check a box off

or... misrecollect a doctor's
appointment or something he lied

so the real heroes those who have been
hurt those who are suffering from ptsd

they have nothing to worry about they
went over there for us and i think we

forget that a lot and it makes it all
the worse when somebody would

Fake injuries and fake conditions that
other very brave men and women are

actually suffering from.

It's not just a crime anymore. It's just
a tragedy.

In 2016, the U .S. government rescinds
Wright's combat action badge.

And also his purple heart.

On June 1st, 2017, Wright is sentenced.

Kathleen Simcoe, his former friend and
boss, is called by the prosecution to

testify. I kept saying, that can't be
him, that can't be him. And then it was.

And I would see the evidence. It was
like you want to be in denial until

irrefutable evidence and you can't deny
it anymore.

And then I got angry. And I got angrier
because I was so disappointed.

Simcoe testifies that Wright appeared
uninjured when he came home from Iraq.

At one point, she is asked if she sees
Wright in the courtroom and to point him

out.

And as I pointed him out, he waved his
hand and did this little wave, and it

just made me want to vomit. It just was,
he didn't have the decency to hang his

head. It was just childish and immature,
and it was...

Just totally inappropriate.

My hero is the whistleblower in this
situation.

Because as taxpayers, we're the ones
that end up paying the freight when

like Daryl do the things that they do.

And so she deserves a medal.

C .J. Jackson reads for American Greed
the statement she makes in open court,

which she explains how Wright retaliated
against her for exposing his fraud.

Daryl Wright defamed my character.

What that man has put me through, no one
should ever go through.

He made six years of my life a nightmare
so that he can continue stealing,

lying, bullying, and manipulating people
to get away with his crime.

Daryl Wright is sentenced to three years
in federal prison.

in order to pay restitution of $646
,000.

His sister, Karen Wright, is sentenced
to three years of probation.

Both decline to speak with American
Greed.

I'm glad he's in prison. I'm glad he's
feeling some pain for this. I'm glad

gave him restitution.

Hopefully they'll be able to get some of
that out of him.

He hurt his community by lying to them.

He hurt the National Guard in my unit
because he brought us into his scam.

He hurt a lot of people along the way
and he needs to feel some pain.