Contact: Jim Moore
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Tel: (207) 945-0373

Bangor, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Stephen
Longstaff, 54, of Chelsea, Maine, pled guilty yesterday in United States District Court in Bangor to
making false claims for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”) travel benefits. VA travel benefits are
reimbursements for travel expenses paid to individuals who meet certain eligibility criteria and who
must travel to receive VA services.

According to court records, between 2009 and 2012, Longstaff submitted more than 150
fraudulent claims for V.A. travel benefits by overstating the distance he was driving between the Togus
V.A. Medical Center and locations in Washington County, Maine and Hancock County, Maine, where he
claimed to reside. A V.A. investigator conducting surveillance discovered that Longstaff was residing in
close proximity to the V.A. Medical Center and not in Charlotte, Maine, in Washington County, over 350
miles away from the V.A. Medical Center, as he had recently claimed. Longstaff was paid over $17,000
in travel benefits.

Longstaff faces up to 5 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. He will be sentenced after
completion of a pre-sentence report by the United States Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of the
Inspector General.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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