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his own tangles with Maricopa’s infantry imposter in his home state of California. “Zinnerman recently started defrauding some of our donors,” he said in July 2023. Wine Country Marines reported more than $700,000 in donations in its most recent filings with the IRS and last year received another donation worth $10 million from San Mateo County. Liechty didn’t disclose how much money he thinks Zinnerman was able to purloin. Coupled with donations that Zinnerman solicited, and other ill-gotten funds used to shuttle him from Maricopa to public events across the country to tout his counterfeit awards, it was a strong enough cocktail to turn heads at the FBI, Liechty said. “There is a federal investigation going on for stolen valor,” Liechty said. “[Zinnerman] got himself into some really deep water. He might not realize how deep, but it’s deep.” The FBI was mum on the issue, although multiple sources said they had spoken with investigators at the bureau about Zinnerman. “We neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation into [Zinnerman] and have no comment,” FBI national spokesperson Tina Jagerson said. The probe isn’t limited to lucre, Liechty claimed. Zinnerman could face additional federal charges for falsifying military personnel documents. The DD-214 Zinnerman provided to reporters appears to be phony. The word “medal” is repeatedly misspelled on the document, which is dated after Zinnerman’s supposed retirement. By 2002, when Zinnerman claims he retired, these discharge forms were generated electronically. But the document Zinnerman provided was typed on a typewriter. And the form lists decorations like the Bronze Star and Purple Heart that Zinnerman never won, according to national databases. The nail in the coffin for Zinnerman was the beefy list of accolades, promotions, certifications and deployments spanning the 1980s and 1990s. According to the National Personal Records Center, “There is no record of [Zinnerman’s] service after his discharge in 1980.” Records show Zinnerman was not honorably discharged, nor did he serve for close to a quarter- century. He served just three years before he was accused of repeated misconduct and ousted from the armed forces. He was a private first class when he was discharged — the second-lowest rank in the Marine Corps and seven ranks below sergeant major. “His DD-214 is a forgery,” Wine Country Marines President James Brown said. “He forged a lot of documents. It’s a lot of felonies.” News that Zinnerman’s documents were forged spread like wildfire around the military community in Arizona. Zinnerman had attained membership in Maricopa’s VFW and American Legion posts as well as
documents, pile on. As Zinnerman himself told reporters, “This is a clusterfuck.”
Photographs Zinnerman shared with reporters last year, purporting to be images of himself as a drill sergeant in Iraq in 1990, were proven to be bogus, too. Zinnerman lifted the images, which did not depict him, from the Marine Corps Times. The individual resembling Zinnerman in the photos is Gunnery Sgt. Rashaud Drayton in 2018, according to Uribe and the Wine Country Marines. Zinnerman had gone so far as to print and frame the stolen images and hang them inside his home. They were visible when reporters interviewed him last year. When asked why the photos were hanging in his home, Zinnerman said Drayton was a family member. But he mispronounced Drayton’s name. Son? Cousin? Nephew? Not quite. “Rashaud is, uh, just a distant, uh, family,” Zinnerman said. He could not even articulate if Drayton was a relative on his mother’s or father’s side of the family. Those who violate the Stolen Valor Act are required to repay stolen money and can face a prison sentence of one year under federal law. But sanctions can increase exponentially as related charges, like wire fraud and falsifying military
Zinnerman, flanked by U.S. congressmen, is the keynote speaker at a Marines ball in 2022. In reality, he's a dishonorably discharged recruit with a counterfeit DD-214.
FAKE WAR HERO SCAMMED THE STATE — AND MANY OTHERS ALONG THE WAY Some weave grand lies and exit dramatically. Then there’s Stanley Wayne Wineberg Jr., who spun a slow-burning tale of wartime heroism that spans decades and a great distance. The Apache Junction resident scammed a state agency and got away with it, forcing a change to the department’s legal policy in November. But that’s the mere tip of the iceberg. Wineberg, by all accounts, seemed like an ordinary guy. He’d drive home from his job as a cable guy, park his truck in the driveway of his cookie-cutter home and greet his newlywed wife at the door. The setting sun would throw a beam of light against his polished Purple Heart license plates as his wife closed the front door on another picturesque day. She didn’t know about the half-dozen wives who came before her. She didn’t know he left them all in financial ruin. She definitely didn’t know she’d be next.
the Marine Corps League, a prestigious veterans’ organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. Joe Uribe, a top officer in the Maricopa detachment of the Marine Corps League of Arizona, expressed remorse for accepting Zinnerman’s application to become a member some years ago. “It pains me to say this,” Uribe said in an interview. “It’s clear and apparent to me that his document was 100% fraudulent.” Frank Alger, a senior officer for the Marine Corps League’s Department of Arizona, said the organization had concluded its own investigation into Zinnerman. “He has been expelled from the Marine Corps League,” Alger said. “This guy is a stolen valor guy.” Cmdr. Thomas Kelley with Maricopa’s American Legion post also confirmed an investigation into Zinnerman was elevated to the district commander, where his membership was terminated. When asked to defend himself against the claims of forgery, Zinnerman couldn’t offer an iota of evidence to support his own claims. He merely first referred reporters to friends who could “verify who I am and what I did.” He said he had a stroke days before that interview and was partially paralyzed. He later couched his self- defense, saying he was hopped up on prescription drugs while talking to reporters. Then, suddenly, he made an admission. “You know what, I did have that one [other than honorable] discharge. I know what they’re talking about in 1980,” Zinnerman said. “I do remember that now. I’m just having a hard time with my memory.”
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