Phony war POW bilked Long Island veterans group out of $81K to pay for Amazon: DA

A Long Island grifter allegedly bilked an American Legion out of over $80,000 after posing as a decorated POW veteran — when in reality he’d been ejected from the Army over bad conduct and was in prison when he claimed to be a captive of war.David Agtsteribbe, 58, allegedly used a trove of fake discharge papers and medals around 2021 to pose as an honored Special Forces vet and con his was into a Hamptons Bay American Legion, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office.Once inside the veterans’ organization Agtsteribbe worked his was up to a finance officer position — and allegedly funneled at least $81,000 into his own bank accounts, which he blew on Amazon purchase, TV bills and vacations for himself and his family, prosecutors said.“Every single cent of that money was taken out of another, more deserving, or a deserving veteran’s pocket,” Suffolk DA Ray Tierney told reporters Tuesday.“This case is about alleged fraud, theft, and the exploitation of resources that exist to support and honor those who have served our country,” he added.“That’s what they’re for.

They’re for our veterans.They are not for fraudsters.”Agtsteribbe — who Tierney called a “career fraudster” — painted himself as a courageous American warrior when he infiltrated the American Legion, with a Southampton veterans profile describing a daring career of covert operations in Latin America and taking a bullet for a US senator in Iraq.He also claimed to have been a prisoner of war sometime in his service, and supposedly retired with a medical discharge in 1993 as a lieutenant colonel.Those yarns were bolstered by a museum’s worth of military paraphernalia, which included a distinguished service cross — the military’s second highest honor — most of which prosecutors suspected he purchased online.

But those stories of heroism skipped the reality of his Army career — which ended in 1988 promptly after he joined up, and was caught stealing...