Camden dive shop employee charged with false VA claims

Nov. 16—A second Camden County dive shop employee is awaiting sentencing after admitting to submitting more than $700,000 in false claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs for scuba lessons for military veterans' education benefits.

John Spyker, training director at Diver's Den in St. Marys, has pleaded guilty to charges of false, fictitious and fraudulent claims, said David H. Estes, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.

Spyker, 39, of Yulee, Fla., faces a statutory penalty of up to five years in prison and three years of supervised release, as well as substantial financial penalties and restitution.

"As the sixth defendant admitting culpability in this investigation, John Spyker represents one more falling domino in the effort to unravel this substantial theft of veterans' education benefits," Estes said. "The VA Office of Inspector General continues to do outstanding work in identifying and ending this fraud."

Spyker admitted to submitting false and fraudulent information to the Department of Veterans Affairs from January 2021 through January 2022 for tuition payments under the Post 9/11 GI Bill for $722,399.19.

Theresa Whitlock, 55, of St. Marys, pleaded guilty in September to providing false information to the VA about the Diver's Den diving programs, submitting claims for tuition payments totaling more than $1.1 million. As part of the restitution, Whitlock agreed to forfeit more than $64,000 seized from the Diver's Den bank accounts.

Spyker joins five other defendants, all owners, managers and/or instructors at Diver's Den and Scooba Shack in Savannah and Richmond Hill who have already entered guilty pleas. Together, they are responsible for defrauding more than $6 million from VA education benefits, according to prosecutors.

The false submissions misstated the businesses' compliance with VA regulations, dates of students' attendance and hours of instructions, among other information.

Some of the defendants also participated in creating fictitious scholarship programs to provide the appearance that a required percentage of non-VA students participated in the classes.

The businesses billed the VA up to more than $20,000 per veteran student enrollee for the classes.

"Safeguarding Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefit funds reserved for deserving veterans remains a priority, and our investigators are working diligently in the field to ensure these programs are not exploited for financial gain and greed," said Special Agent in Charge David Spilker with the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General's Southeast Field Office. "Six guilty pleas in this case is a testament of our commitment to working with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who would defraud VA's benefits programs."