Michael Lattea, Founder Of Ruck For Warriors, Lies About Service And Commits Fraud – Guardian Of Valor

We have been getting emails for a while about the legitimacy of the organization called “Ruck For Warriors”. People were concerned that donations they were giving, and money being spent on items they were selling, not being sent to any Veterans organizations.

Well the owner of Ruck For Warriors, Michael lattea, claimed he was a SSG who served two tours in Iraq. He also sported a CIB(Combat Infantryman’s Badge) with one star, meaning he had to have also seen combat somewhere other than Iraq/Afghanistan to earn his second CIB. He is also claiming Airborne and Air assault as well.

Some of you may have seen him and his Organization in some news articles, where they were covering his ruck’s. Below are some, where he has also been claiming two combat deployments to Iraq.

Below is another article, most of these can be found by doing a Google Search for his name.

According to his DD214, he did serve in Iraq/Kuwait from 20080401-2008125, about seven months, but he did not earn a CIB while deployed! So Mr. Lattea, you are not authorized either one of those badges, you also have not attended Airborne, or Air Assault schools! You are also not authorized the Screaming Eagle patches, you were never assigned to them.

Oh and not to mention you never attained the rank of SSG, according to your records, you were discharged as a PV1. (SEE BELOW)

DD214 PART1

DD214 PART2

My friend Scotty over at his Stolen Valor blog  also heard of Lattea’s claims and sent for his records. Here is what they returned on Lattea, which also corroborates the above.

The below photo is one he posted to dating site he frequents, again wearing un-earned awards and rank.

This was posted to his personal FB page about the new Stolen Valor act being passed, maybe he should have taken it to heart.

So after seeing all the embellishment’s it just made us curious as to if he was being honest with his Ruck For Warriors gig, and what was happening to all the donations.

First, Michael has a history of committing fraud. We were told he was busted down to Private in Kuwait because he was stealing people’s gear, by several that served with him, so that explains the discharge at PV1. They also told us that he never saw combat, and never left Kuwait, which the combat part is obvious as he never earned a CIB.

He also has several charges, several being for Fraud:

He is also wanted in Indiana for fraud as well, our good friend Craig over at Battle In Distress, and Reed at Warrior Pointe confirmed most of this, as they have looked into him for a while.

Craig and Reed have been on to him for a while, Craig does a lot to help our troops and reaches out to them when they need help. So he reached out to us to help him put a stop to Lattea’s fraud.

Here is one thing we found when doing some searching on him:

It was not long after he posted this that he started the Ruck For Warriors idea. It was a good idea, he would ruck march to different areas, and collect donations to bring awareness to PTSD and Suicide among our troops. A cause that is near and dear to my heart. Only one problem, after a while, people began asking questions, including some of those that were helping him with the organization.

Well guess what happens when you call out Michael for misuse of donations he received and wearing unearned awards? The texts below were sent to a female Soldier from one of Michael’s friends after she outed him.

Below is part of a convo between Michael’s Ruck For Warrior’s Facebook page, and a fan. Here he says some of the donations were sent to his landlord.

Michael also tried to use my good friend Boone Cutler, from Tipping Point With Boone Cutler  to make him seem authentic. He told people that Boone had verified he was legit through Bulldog1 at Stolen Valor(me). I had never heard of him until this came to light, and Boone has asked me to tell everyone if anyone ever drops his name for any type of verification like this to contact him directly. The same goes for me, if anyone ever tells you we vetted them, feel free to email us and ask.

Well after all this was brought to Michael’s attention by Craig, he decide to shut down the Ruck For Warrior’s Facebook page. The old admin group is still up for now, but the community page, which had more than 10k likes was unpublished. He told Craig that he would turn it over to him, and would back out completely.

This has yet to happen, once Michael found out he was being exposed, he stopped communicating with everyone.

Here is a snapshot of the page before it went down.

This is the last post he made to the page before he took it down:

Below are snapshots of one of the Gofundme pages setup for donations, and his explanation about what they are used for.

Lots of people have come forward in the past couple of weeks about the donations they made to Ruck For Warriors, Statements are being taken and submitted to authorities. Lattea is on probation for previous charges of fraud, and is still wanted on the other charge in Ohio.

Michael your days of defrauding people in the name of our Veterans and troops are over, using PTSD and Suicide to fund your personal life is in my opinion, worse than most of the poser’s on this site.

Also, he removed his personal profile on Facebook before this article went live.

Thanks to everyone that pulled together to put an end to this fraud, Scott from Stolen Valor Offenders, Craig from Battle In Distress,and Reed from Warrior Pointe. Know that if you try to defraud our Vets, or take advantage of them in any way, we will stop at nothing to stop you.

UPDATE:

You just have to love our fans, they continue digging even after we out someone. A fan sent us a link to another lie told by Lattea, here he claims to have been wounded twice by an IED.  Not to mention he can not spell Captain and types his rank like the Marines do.

UPDATE:20131227

As of this evening, the Facebook page Ruck For Warriors has been taken over by myself and admins from ASMDSS, Battle In Distress and Warrior Pointe. At this time we are not sure of its future as Michael has destroyed the name.

UPDATE:20131230

We are being told by page admins on FB that Lattea is reporting the links they are posting to this story to Facebook, and Facebook is removing them, saying they violate the Community Standards. Really Facebook? How about Lattea violating people’s trust, and taking advantage of them? No worries though Lattea, we are not going away, and thousands of people have already seen the story and will continue to.

You do not take advantage of Veterans like you have and get away with it. Report it on FB all you want, your not going to change that!

UPDATE: 20140412

Michael Lattea has been arrested in Woodstock Illinois and being held with no bond for another agency, we are sure this is in reference to his RFW and Stolen Valor charges. We have not yet confirmed what he is charged with, but we will keep you updated.

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