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Port St. Lucie, FL - A man plead guilty for disabilities fraud after he was busted posting photos of himself weightlifting online.
Zachary Barton, 36, received over $245,000 in disability payments from the Department of Veterans Affairs after he “exaggerated his mental and physical impairments to increase the [amount of] disability payments he received,” according to the United States Department of Justice.
The Miami Herald reports Barton submitted a 2012 claim describing how he suffered from PTSD due to combat and had “limited motion of the arm at the shoulder level and painful movement of the arm.”
Barton stated he could only go to the gym twice a week, and that he could barely lift 10lbs.
Despite his claims, Barton and his wife posted photos on social media showing Barton participating in bodybuilding contests.
The Department of Justice says "Barton routinely performed strenuous weight-lifting—leg-pressing 650 pounds and chest pressing over 300 pounds.”
An investigation of gym records showed Barton also regularly checked in to exercise.
Barton is scheduled to be sentenced in August after pleading guilty in federal court to theft of government funds from a federal agency.