bobdina
05-21-2010, 12:18 PM
Bogus Marine's Home Sold at Auction
May 15, 2010
Philadelphia Inquirer
The dream home of the dreamt-up Marine was sold Friday at a Bucks County sheriff's sale.
The unfinished McMansion of Andrew A. Diabo -- having sat abandoned and decaying for a decade while debts of $530,942 piled up -- was claimed by his lender, GMAC Mortgage, for $892 in costs.
For years, Diabo, 38, had held unhappy neighbors, creditors, and township officials at bay by portraying himself as a decorated, wounded Marine pilot on constant deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But as The Inquirer reported last month, it was a ruse he had parlayed into sympathetic stories in the local media, free legal help, and kid-gloves treatment by Tinicum Township regulators.
Diabo also used his fake military past to win a six-figure position with a Florida-based government contractor, according to documents obtained by The Inquirer.
Diabo's claim was officially debunked in March by military investigators in Washington, who found that the Canadian-born software expert had never been a Marine.
The finding prompted an ongoing federal criminal probe into Diabo, who seems nowhere to be found. In March, after being sent a cease-and-desist letter from the military, he vanished from Bucks County with his wife and young son.
Documents from the Marine Corps Inspector General's Office show Diabo was hired in 2008 as a Philadelphia-based senior computer consultant for Complete Inspection Systems Inc. of Indiatlantic, Fla.
A company letter dated March 1, 2008, describes the firm as a government contractor with projects for the Treasury Department, the National Security Agency, and Fortune 500 companies.
The same letter describes Diabo as "a senior Marine Corps commissioned officer who had served our country . . . so unselfishly in recent years," adding that the company can "learn and benefit [from] . . . his leadership capabilities."
A job description lists annual base pay of $120,000, a 401(k) package, medical benefits, and bonus programs. Company president Gary Parish did not return phone messages seeking comment.
It is illegal to falsely claim military service for personal benefit. It is also against federal law to falsely claim military honors or medals.
Diabo allegedly displayed Silver Star and Purple Heart plaques on a wall of his apartment along the Delaware River in Upper Black Eddy.
Diabo and his wife, Evelynn, had broken ground in 2000 on a grand, two-story house -- complete with a four-bay garage for their matching Corvettes -- on three acres near Tinicum Elementary School on Dark Hollow Road.
But then, after the white siding was on and the drywall hung, construction halted in 2001. As years passed and questions mounted, Diabo left word that he had been serving overseas, virtually uninterrupted, since shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
Stories to that effect ran in at least two local newspapers last fall, prompting offers of help from the community -- and derision toward griping neighbors. The tale unraveled after a relative of a well-wisher, suspicious when Diabo evaded questions about his military service, asked The Inquirer to investigate him.
"It's a shame that it all went down this way," Tim Blaikie, whose family lives next door to Diabo's Tinicum lot, said Friday. "It's just a relief that maybe now there will be some movement on this."
The deed of the house likely will be transferred to GMAC by midsummer, after which it can be listed for sale. The original builder, Andrew Lykon Jr. -- who said Diabo still owed him about $20,000 -- estimated that at least $200,000 would be needed to finish the house and grounds.
Since at least 1998, the Diabos had leased an apartment above an antiques store in Bridgeton Township, where Andrew Diabo had started a software consulting company.
"He had all kinds of routers and lines in there," said landlady Kathie Brown, who had bought the store in 2003. Diabo was gone for long stretches, she said, and she had no proof that his claims of military service were bogus.
During one absence, she said, the couple's red and yellow Corvettes were destroyed by flooding several years ago.
There has been no sign of Diabo, believed to be in Canada, since mid-March. Brown said his in-laws had removed most of the belongings from the apartment.
"The computers," she said, "were the first things to go."
http://www.military.com/news/article/bogus-marines-home-sold-at-auction.html?col=1186032325324
May 15, 2010
Philadelphia Inquirer
The dream home of the dreamt-up Marine was sold Friday at a Bucks County sheriff's sale.
The unfinished McMansion of Andrew A. Diabo -- having sat abandoned and decaying for a decade while debts of $530,942 piled up -- was claimed by his lender, GMAC Mortgage, for $892 in costs.
For years, Diabo, 38, had held unhappy neighbors, creditors, and township officials at bay by portraying himself as a decorated, wounded Marine pilot on constant deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But as The Inquirer reported last month, it was a ruse he had parlayed into sympathetic stories in the local media, free legal help, and kid-gloves treatment by Tinicum Township regulators.
Diabo also used his fake military past to win a six-figure position with a Florida-based government contractor, according to documents obtained by The Inquirer.
Diabo's claim was officially debunked in March by military investigators in Washington, who found that the Canadian-born software expert had never been a Marine.
The finding prompted an ongoing federal criminal probe into Diabo, who seems nowhere to be found. In March, after being sent a cease-and-desist letter from the military, he vanished from Bucks County with his wife and young son.
Documents from the Marine Corps Inspector General's Office show Diabo was hired in 2008 as a Philadelphia-based senior computer consultant for Complete Inspection Systems Inc. of Indiatlantic, Fla.
A company letter dated March 1, 2008, describes the firm as a government contractor with projects for the Treasury Department, the National Security Agency, and Fortune 500 companies.
The same letter describes Diabo as "a senior Marine Corps commissioned officer who had served our country . . . so unselfishly in recent years," adding that the company can "learn and benefit [from] . . . his leadership capabilities."
A job description lists annual base pay of $120,000, a 401(k) package, medical benefits, and bonus programs. Company president Gary Parish did not return phone messages seeking comment.
It is illegal to falsely claim military service for personal benefit. It is also against federal law to falsely claim military honors or medals.
Diabo allegedly displayed Silver Star and Purple Heart plaques on a wall of his apartment along the Delaware River in Upper Black Eddy.
Diabo and his wife, Evelynn, had broken ground in 2000 on a grand, two-story house -- complete with a four-bay garage for their matching Corvettes -- on three acres near Tinicum Elementary School on Dark Hollow Road.
But then, after the white siding was on and the drywall hung, construction halted in 2001. As years passed and questions mounted, Diabo left word that he had been serving overseas, virtually uninterrupted, since shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
Stories to that effect ran in at least two local newspapers last fall, prompting offers of help from the community -- and derision toward griping neighbors. The tale unraveled after a relative of a well-wisher, suspicious when Diabo evaded questions about his military service, asked The Inquirer to investigate him.
"It's a shame that it all went down this way," Tim Blaikie, whose family lives next door to Diabo's Tinicum lot, said Friday. "It's just a relief that maybe now there will be some movement on this."
The deed of the house likely will be transferred to GMAC by midsummer, after which it can be listed for sale. The original builder, Andrew Lykon Jr. -- who said Diabo still owed him about $20,000 -- estimated that at least $200,000 would be needed to finish the house and grounds.
Since at least 1998, the Diabos had leased an apartment above an antiques store in Bridgeton Township, where Andrew Diabo had started a software consulting company.
"He had all kinds of routers and lines in there," said landlady Kathie Brown, who had bought the store in 2003. Diabo was gone for long stretches, she said, and she had no proof that his claims of military service were bogus.
During one absence, she said, the couple's red and yellow Corvettes were destroyed by flooding several years ago.
There has been no sign of Diabo, believed to be in Canada, since mid-March. Brown said his in-laws had removed most of the belongings from the apartment.
"The computers," she said, "were the first things to go."
http://www.military.com/news/article/bogus-marines-home-sold-at-auction.html?col=1186032325324