A former Marine who fraudulently claimed to have been awarded a Purple Heart to obtain additional pension benefits is headed to federal prison.

Brandon Ryan Blackstone, 35, was sentenced to 21 months in prison on April 21 after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of fraudulent representation about the receipt of a military decoration for financial gain in U.S. District Court for Northern Texas.  

Blackstone, who served in the Marines from 2004 to 2006, pleaded guilty in September 2016 as part of a plea deal admitting that he falsely claimed injuries sustained in Iraq from an anti-tank mine explosion on Department of Veterans Affairs forms for compensation and/or pension benefits.

In a further effort to obtain the benefits, Blackstone also admitted to providing forged and falsified witness statements of the explosion to VA officials in October 2006. He began receiving disability benefits the following month.

Later, in February 2012, Blackstone applied online for assistance from the Military Warrior Support Foundation, a charity non-profit that provides mortgage-free housing wounded veterans and Gold Star families.

On the application, he claimed to have been awarded Purple Heart Medal as a result of the bogus injuries and was awarded a home in Fort Worth, Texas, in November 2012.

Blackstone was set to receive the title of the home from Military Warrior Support Foundation on November 2015, but a Nov. 22 Dallas Morning News storysaid other Marines tipped the charity off that his claims were fake, possibly lifted from the story of another Marine, Casey Owens, who committed suicide in 2014.

When confronted by officials from the nonprofit Blackstone admitted to the fraud, the story said.

The FBI and the VA’s Office of Inspector General later investigated the case. Blackstone has been in prison since February for violations of his pretrial conditions.

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