A man who falsely claimed to have served with U.S. special forces in Laos and Afghanistan has been sentenced to 21 months in prison by a court in the U.S. city of Baltimore.
William Hillar, 66, was also ordered Tuesday to pay $170,000 in restitution to organizations — including the U.S. military and Federal Bureau of Investigation — that paid him to lecture on counter-terrorism and drug interdiction.
Hillar admitted in court documents that he falsely posed for 13 years as a former Green Beret colonel who served in Laos during the Vietnam war and advised Afghan mujahideen during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. He also claimed to have served in Central America and the Middle East.
Hillar had claimed to be an expert on human trafficking, saying his own daughter was kidnapped in Asia, sodomized and tortured before being hacked to death with machetes. In fact, his daughter is alive and well.
Hillar was exposed by a real former Green Beret who became suspicious and began checking with other retired service members.
Organizations that paid Hillar to lecture included several law enforcement agencies from across the United States.