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According to a letter from the IRS to Wineberg last year, the IRS “has no record of a processed tax return for 2020.” Hofmann, who hired Wineberg based on his resume — which was supplied to reporters and boasts the bogus Purple Heart medal — sympathetically loaned him $3,000. Weinberg never repaid the loan, telling Hofmann he was tending to his deceased father’s affairs in Florida. His father is alive today.
fabricated. And the university where he serves as dean? It doesn’t exist. And when it did, its credibility was cloudy at best. Although he announced he’d run for city council in August 2023, Willis pulled off the feat of gathering all 424 of his election signatures in just four days up to and including the April 1 deadline, according to nomination petitions he filed with the City of Maricopa. Never mind some of those signatures were from people who don’t live in the city, an analysis of the documents revealed. That included voters registered in places like Tucson. Willis said education is his top priority, as he was a career public schoolteacher, retiring from the Thornton Township High Schools District in Harvey, Ill., in 2021. He said he was qualified to teach when, in 1994, he obtained his master’s degree from Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. The school’s registrar, Arlene Clarke, said she “noted no record of this person as a graduate.” Willis said he went on to earn his doctor title, one he displays proudly on all his election documents, at Larry Love University in Muskogee, Okla., in 2018. He’s now the dean of theology at that university, he claims. The school’s entity status expired in 2016, according to the Oklahoma Secretary of State. The university’s most recent graduation ceremony was in 2020, its website states. When Willis graduated in 2018, VA Representation Including: • Higher Level Reviews (HLR) • Supplemental Claims (SCL) • Notices of Disagreement (NOD) • Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) • BVA Videoconference Hearings Know Your Rights and Don’t Take “No” for an Answer! VA Disability Claim Denied?
Cheryl Hinneburg told American Veterans Magazine . “Those who are guilty of stolen valor should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It is a slap in the face to our military and veterans.” In 2019, Congress upped the federal prison sentence from six months to one year for violating the stolen valor law to curb such criminal acts. But just one year later, investigators at the National Archives reported stolen valor cases were on the rise. In a survey of 3,000 Arizona residents by American Veterans Magazine , more than 85% said the penalties are not strict enough. One in 10 respondents said the penalties were adequate while just 1 in 100 said they were too strict. Susan Buonsante is in the super-majority on that issue. Buonsante was married to Wineberg less than a year when she found out about his stolen valor. Not before he took her for $70,000, she said. “I had no idea the man I married was a con artist and a serial predator of women,” she said. “He fabricated nearly every detail of his life story.” Buonsante spent more than $55,000 on a parcel of land in unincorporated Pinal County under the auspice her new husband would obtain a VA-backed Veterans Home Loan to build a house there. It was only after closing on the land she learned he was not eligible for a VA loan. According to a divorce decree in Pinal County Superior Court, Buonsante was awarded the land “due to Wineberg engaging in fraud.” Wineberg has been married at least six times and has at least six children, none of whom he supports, according to government records. He married one woman four days after divorcing another — and owes at least $27,424 in back child support, according to official records from the Colorado Office of Economic Security supplied to reporters by two women. Caren Fluharty, the mother of one of his daughters, said he tried to dodge child support by claiming his sperm was genetically modified to only produce male children. He still owes her more than $8,000 in child support although his daughter is 21 years old. “Within a week, he moved in with me,” Fluharty said. “He rented a home in my name that was four times what I could afford. When I told him I was pregnant, he packed his shit and left, and I got evicted.” Fluharty estimates Wineberg took her for $19,655. They were never married, although court records show an El Paso County, Colo., judge issued a permanent restraining order against Wineberg in 2001. Another ex-girlfriend, Tina White, estimates she lost north of $71,000. White said Wineberg took out three vehicle loans in her name: $50,000 for a brand-new Chevy Silverado
CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE PLAYS DRESS UP AS AIR FORCE VETERAN
With aspirations as lofty as his title, Maj. Dr. Leon Willis wants Maricopa residents’ votes for city council when the polls open in July. Such a title conveys a remarkable aptitude for leadership. In fact, there are only 620 airmen in the entire country who can claim that title, according to U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Deana M. Heitzman. According to the university where Willis purportedly serves as dean of theology and earned his doctorate degree, he is a distinguished U.S. Air Force veteran. His academic journey, as depicted, is marked by scholarly achievements, including a master’s degree from a theological institution in Atlanta. But none of this is true, an American Veterans Magazine investigation reveals. His military service, like his master’s degree, is entirely
Willis wears his CAP uniform and tells people he's an Air Force veteran at a college graduation in Oklahoma.
and $21,000 for two brand-new Honda dirt bikes. He convinced her to borrow $400,000 for a home loan in his name but disappeared the week of closing, she said. “He put me in a very bad financial situation,” White said through tears. “He is very abusive towards women. He promised to pay back the money he owed me, but he never did.” It’s difficult to pinpoint the genesis of Wineberg’s financial woes. Judges in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico ordered him to pay restitution in seven civil lawsuits he lost between 1994 and 2016. He’s been evicted at least four times in Colorado and metro Phoenix. In 1998, on the same day he was discharged from the Army, Wineberg was charged with theft, computer crimes and possessing a forged instrument. A Denver District Court judge ordered him to pay his victims $13,329 in restitution and court fees after he pleaded guilty to the latter charge in a plea bargain and was sentenced to fines and probation. He violated his probation in 2004, court records show. A public records request for case documents did not reveal specifics about his crimes. IRS records show Wineberg didn’t file taxes for nearly a decade, racking up $21,738 in penalties. In 2019, he finally filed for bankruptcy. But his financial misdeeds continued, according to his former employer, Chris Hofmann. In 2020 and 2021, Wineberg filed W-2 Forms with the IRS naming Sioux Falls, S.D.-based TAK Communications as his employer. “He never worked at TAK,” said Hofmann. “Everything he did with us was 1099 [contract] work.” Hofmann supplied Wineberg’s 1099 forms and called the W-2 forms “fake.” He noted the employer identification number didn’t match the company and the company does not issue W-2s. Wineberg used those fishy W-2 forms to both file taxes and apply for mortgage loans.
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