http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...eam&id=8994000
Man cashes in pretending to be Navy SEAL
A former Lake Tahoe bartender has used a bogus story that he's the most decorated Navy SEAL of all time to cash in, big. AJ Dicken can be very convincing -- so convincing that he talked his way into part of a $300 million security contract.
The I-Team has been exposing fake military heroes over the years -- people who make up stories of bravery to impress others or to get their money. This may be the ultimate case.
Dicken, 56, is very good at telling a story, even when he knows it's not true -- that he is a highly decorated member of the special forces, a Navy SEAL.
"My wife and I met AJ, we were at a sports bar in Lake Tahoe; he was a bartender," Harry Vested said.
Unlike most real Navy SEALs the I-Team's Dan Noyes has met, Vested says Dicken was quick to talk about his exploits and that he wore his credentials openly.
"He had on his, I'll just call it his Navy SEAL hat, with a trident on the brim and a little identification button on the side with a rank," Vested said.
Vested is a television producer who thought Dicken's experience could make a good documentary.
Dicken closed the deal with a DD-214 -- discharge papers saying he served 35 years in naval special warfare, 291 classified central intelligence operations, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, awarded the bronze Star, Silver Star, Navy Cross, two Purple Hearts, six counter-terrorist service medals, and nine presidential citations.
Noyes: "Give me the one sentence pitch on the documentary, what was the documentary going to be?"
Vested: "'A Soldier's Story,' based on what he gave us, the most highly decorated Navy SEAL in the history of the Navy SEALs."
Noyes: "And you paid him the money."
Vested: "It's just over $50,000."
After signing away rights to his life story, Dicken began sending page upon page of suggested plot lines. He wrote, "I have answered questions on a regular basis about what it is like to be a SEAL...What it is like to be in combat, man's inhumanity to man, and to deal with the horrors of war...This story is my best recollection."
But, Vested was doing his own research and uncovered a troubling fact (something the I-Team verified with the National Personnel Records Center) -- that Dicken has never served a day in any branch of the U.S. Military.
The biggest lie yet came when Vested tried to confront Dicken face to face.
Vested: "He was the one that actually shot Osama bin Laden."
Noyes: "And you bought that?"
Vested: "No, I knew that this was a charade at that point, there was no question about it."
Dan: "AJ, I need to talk to you about your Navy SEAL background."
Dicken: "I don't have a Navy SEAL background."
Dan: "You told a lot of people that, didn't you?"
Dicken: "No, I did not."
When the I-Team tracked down Dicken in Southern California last week, he wouldn't stop long enough to look at the dossier Noyes has compiled on him -- all the phony Facebook postings, the emails with his tall tales, the fake discharge papers, the contract he signed with Vested guaranteeing he's a Navy SEAL.
Noyes: "You have a line of people who are claiming you scammed them out of a lot of money."
Dicken: "No."
Noyes: "Is that true or not."
Dicken: "Not true."
Dicken's next target -- the Carson City, Nevada airport. At a public hearing last May, the airport commission "thanked Mr. Dicken for his service as a U.S. Navy SEAL" and granted use of a hangar for his new self-defense classes, based on skills he supposedly learned as a Navy SEAL.
He recorded promotional videos, and started running weapons training for sportsmen in the Nevada desert. That attracted increasingly bigger fish. Surgeons Brian Romaneschi and Greg Ginn took lessons from Dicken hoping to improve their hunting skills.
"I just asked, 'What is your background?' and he said, 'I'm ex-Navy SEAL, then I went into the CIA after I retired from the SEALs,'" Ginn said.
"He can be very charming, very engaging, I think he's a typical con man, he presents a face that kind of draws you in," Romaneschi said.
The doctors soon became investors in Dicken's new venture -- Global Security and Logistics.
Noyes: "All told, how much money did you give AJ Dicken?"
Ginn: "$375,000."
Noyes: "How about you, Brian?"
Romaneschi: "About the same amount."
Dan: "Almost $400,000?"
Romaneschi: "Yes."
Dicken used their money to go after the biggest payday of all -- part of a $300 million contract with the nation of Burundi to provide security on a construction project.
Dicken's conduct on that trip had his entourage fearing for their lives -- that story Friday on ABC7 News at 6. You'll also see how his schemes begin to unravel, when a real Navy SEAL takes him on.
http://blogs.ajc.com/news-to-me/2013...rity-contract/
Fake Navy SEAL scores $300M security contract
War creates a lot of heroes, including plenty of fake ones.
A former Lake Tahoe bartender was so good at telling tall tales of military exploits he was able to score a $300 million security contract with the nation of Burundi.
ABC News reporter Dan Noyes in San Francisco brings us the exciting tales of 56-year-old A.J. Dicken, a former Lake Tahoe bartender who made a fortune off lies.
According to the article, Dicken was paid $50,000 by a documentary film maker for his fake life story.
To seal the deal, Dicken provided falsified documents (DD Form 214 discharge papers) saying he served 35 years as a Navy SEAL, participated in 291 classified CIA operations, and was awarded the Bronze Star, Silver Star, Navy Cross, two Purple Hearts, six counter-terrorist service medals, and nine presidential citations.
The documentary was to be called “A Soldier’s Story: The most highly decorated Navy SEAL in the history of the Navy SEALs.”
It’s a story all right. Dicken never served in any branch of the military, said Noyes.
The filmmaker knew he had been duped by the time Dicken told him he was the man who shot Osama bin Laden.
Noyes says Dicken’s tales of heroism got him free use of a Carson City, Nevada, airport hangar where he taught self-defense classes. The airport commissioner Dicken for his years of service as a U.S. Navy Seal at a public hearing in May.
And he made self-defense videos, and began training wealthy hunters on how to use high-powered weapons. Two of these wealthy hunters invested almost $1 million in Dicken’s company — Global Security and Logistics.
That company signed a $300 million contract to provide security in the African nation of Burundi.
The lies became fully unraveled when the board of Global Security and Logistics noticed Dicken was trying to move company assets offshore to an account only he could access. Dicken was fired and company officers found receipts for fake military medals and documents.
When confronted by TV cameras, Dicken denied he ever told anyone he was a Navy SEAL.
Dicken is not a war hero. But he is a felon, said Noyes.
Since hours of “instructional” video exist with Dicken shooting guns he is not legally allowed to possess, the feds are now looking into his past a little more thoroughly.