Rafael Castro, VA Benefits Fraud, California 2024

A brazen scheme to defraud the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been brought to light, with Rafael Castro, a veteran of the U.S. Navy and a former employee of the Veterans Health Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, and his wife, Miriam Castro, pleading guilty in federal court to defrauding the VA out of more than $130,000.

The Castros lied to obtain caregiver benefits from the Caregiver Support Program, a VA program that provides caregiver support for injured veterans. Rafael Castro admitted that he lied about needing high-level assistance for daily activities, including dressing and undressing himself, personal hygiene, and grooming.

According to plea documents, Rafael Castro defrauded the VA into awarding him assistance that paid the primary caregiver—his wife—an amount equivalent to a full-time home health aide’s 40-hour per-week payment. Miriam Castro received monthly payments to be a full-time caregiver for Rafael Castro while her husband worked as a full-time federal employee.

For example, during a 2023 interview, Rafael Castro falsely claimed that he had last worked in 2018 and that his wife was his full-time caregiver. Rafael Castro was employed by the federal government from July 2015 to June 2023, and from June 2023 to April 2024, he worked for the Internal Revenue Service, all while he continued to claim he was unemployed.

This case is an excellent example of the importance of internal inspections within government programs, said U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath. Without the intervention from the Inspector General’s Office, this fraud might have continued indefinitely.

Rafael Castro, 50, of Oceanside, California, and Miriam Castro, 48, of Oceanside, California, are scheduled to be sentenced on April 25, 2025, at 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge James E. Simmons, Jr. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward Chang.

The VA OIG hotline can be reached at 1-800-488-8244 or visited at https://www.va.gov/oig/hotline/. The defendants face a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine for wire fraud, as outlined in Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1343.

Defendant Information:

Defendant: Rafael Castro

Age: 50

City and State: Oceanside, California

Exact Date: April 2024

Sentence or Outcome: Scheduled to be sentenced on April 25, 2025

Dollar Amounts: Over $130,000

Criminal Charges: Wire Fraud – Title 18, U.S.C., Section 1343

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/former-government-employee-and-wife-plead-guilty-defrauding-department-veterans