OT: Create Your Own Military Unit!!!

[dragoon500ly]

Well, even I had to set back in awe at the sheer chutzpah of Yupeng Deng who was arraigned in court on charges that he pretended to be a US Army recruiter and bilked fellow immigrants out of thousands of dollars in fees.

You see, Mr. Deng created his own unit, the "U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve Unit" based in Temple City, a Los Angeles suburb with a large Asian immigrant population.

As many as 100 immigrants wore ACUs and Class A uniforms, berets, decorations, ranks and their own unit patch and were even issued fake military ID cards. The recruits were charged "fees" ranging from $300 to $450 to join Deng's reserve unit and had to pay as much as $120 a year to renew their membership.

Deng trained his recruits with mock weapons and even marched his unit at public events including a parade in Monterey Park and even toured the US Midway Museum in San Diego in full uniform.

What finally broke this unit was Deng's claim that by showing their "military ID cards", local police would help the recruits with traffic tickets.

Deng was able to take advantage of the desperation of many immigrants desire to secure citizenship. His act of fraud also took advantage of the DREAM Act, a immigration legislation which would have offered citizenship in exchange for military service, under certain conditions. The DREAM Act died on the floor of the Senate last year, but there is still enough (mis)information about the DREAM Act to allow people such as Deng to take advantage.

Deng faces 13 counts of obtaining money, labor or property under false pretenses and of manufacturing and selling phony identification documents, if convicted, he faces up to eight years in prison. He was also charged with one count of possession of child pornography and he can face an additional three years in state prison for that charge, if convicted.

Just when you think that you have heard everything.....