JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 63-year-old Jacksonville woman is accused in a federal indictment of drawing veterans survivor benefits she had no right to for 35 years, a stretch that federal prosecutors say added up to $397,120.
The indictment accuses Gail Starks of theft of government money or property, and it adds a count of lying to a federal agency. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case, which U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe’s office announced, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jackson M. Story is assigned to it. Investigators from the Department of Veterans Affairs worked the case.
According to the indictment, Starks collected Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, a monthly payment the Department of Veterans Affairs makes to surviving spouses, from June 1991 through August 2026. Prosecutors say she hid the fact that she was married during that whole period.
The false statement count stems from an Aug. 11 exchange in which, the indictment alleges, Starks claimed to the VA that she was single when she was in fact married.
A conviction on every count could bring as much as 15 years in federal prison. The government also wants Starks to forfeit $397,120, the amount prosecutors tie to the alleged theft.
Federal officials said the charges are part of a wider push against fraud that misuses taxpayer money, following the Justice Department’s creation in April of a National Fraud Enforcement Division. The payments she received were classified as spousal support. An indictment is only an accusation, and Starks is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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