He had attended an entry-level training program years earlier but had not completed the service he claimed, never held the rank he advertised, and had no record of the combat deployments or awards he described to donors.

Those facts mattered not because every person owes the public a résumé, but because he had invoked those claims when asking others to trust him with money.

When Ruth heard the news, she did not cheer.

She sat with her hands folded, staring at the window.

“I once helped him write thank-you cards to people who gave up savings because they believed those stories,” she said.

“Some were widows.