(Beth Clifton collage)
Michigan TV 6 News exposes Kirk Lanam for “Stolen Valor”
HOWELL, Michigan––Again an alleged trainer of pit bull service dogs for U.S. war veterans is in trouble for misrepresentation.
Criminal charges against Kirk Lanam, 52, founder, president and executive director of Veteran Service Dogs Organization, in Osceola Township, Michigan, near Howell, have not yet been filed.
Multiple charges under multiple possible headings look inevitable, however, in light of revelations broadcast in four installments since August 1, 2024 by investigative reporters Todd Heywood and Josh Sanchez of WLNS 6 News in Lansing, Michigan.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Stolen Valor Act
Lanam at minimum appears to have violated the Stolen Valor Act of 2013.
Under the Stolen Valor Act, it is a federal crime for a person to falsely claim to have earned military decorations or medals with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefits.
Violations carry a penalty of up to one year in prison over and above whatever other penalties may be incurred for such related offenses as theft, fraud, or forgery.
Reported Heywood and Sanchez in the August 1, 2024 first installment of their multi-part exposé, “On April 19, 2023, Lanam, in civilian clothing and with one of his service dogs at his side, walked up to the podium at the Hamburg Township Planning Commission.
Kirk Lanam and Chyper.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Brigadier General Kirk Lanham”
‘Good afternoon. My name is Brigadier General Kirk Lanam,’ he said. “I am 34 years on paper with the United States Air Force and 22 years active combat.’
“Lanam always touted his status as a veteran,” Heywood and Sanchez continued, citing a 2017 claim by Lanam to have been in “civil engineering, special operations,” and a 2019 claim to have been “a combat controller and forward operator in countries such as Bolivia, Panama, Kuwait and Iraq.”
However, Lanam’s “military records, obtained by 6 News from the Air Force Personnel Center in Texas as well as the National Personnel Records Center (NRPC) of the National Archives, show Lanam served just under two years in the U.S. Air Force, from July 1990 to June 1992,” Heywood and Sanchez recounted.
“Those records reveal that when he separated from the Air Force, he had a rank of Airman Basic (E-1).”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Discharged for “personality disorder”
“Those records also reveal,” Heywood later summarized, “he did not attend any U.S. Air Force training schools related to combat, special operations, or dog handling.
“Documents provided by Lanam’s stepson, Nathan Buchanan, show Lanam signed a letter to the U.S. Air Force acknowledging he was being separated from the USAF because of a ‘personality disorder.’ That document also acknowledges Lanam had consulted an attorney.”
Buchanan also told Heywood and Sanchez of the 6 News team that Lanam claimed to have a doctorate from Northern Michigan University.
“During a July 25, 2024 visit to the Veteran Service Dogs Organization facility,” Heywood and Sanchez reported, “Lanam told 6 News he holds a doctorate from MIT and attended the University of Michigan.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Stepping away”
Veteran Service Dogs Organization on August 4, 2024 announced by email that, “For the good of the organization, Kirk is stepping away from Veteran Service Dogs. We will be closed for the next two weeks while undergoing a reorganization.”
The email was unsigned.
“It is unclear who authored the letter sent through the organization’s vet records management system or who is taking over the operations,” Heywood said.
Continued the email, Heywood added, “For any of the veterans who are concerned about the legal ownership of the dogs, please use these next two weeks to send a message through the VetBadger clinic management system.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“No intention of taking any dogs away”
“Please include the address you wish to have the microchip registered to if the dog is microchipped. If you are not neglecting or abusing the dog, your request will be honored, and the appropriate steps will be taken to facilitate the transfer. VSDO [Veteran Service Dogs Organization] has no intention of taking any dogs away.”
Explained Heywood, “Veterans involved in the organization tell the 6 News Investigates Team they were required to sign a contract with VSDO upon entry — whether they bring their own dog for training or receive one from the organization — placing ownership in the hands of the organization and allowing the dog to be taken back in the event of abuse or neglect.”
(Beth Clifton photo)
“Lanam himself may be keeping dogs in poor conditions”
Ironically, “During the ongoing investigation by 6 News,” Heywood said, “information has surfaced that Lanam himself may be keeping dogs at the VSDO facility in poor conditions, with his stepson [Nathan Buchanan, a veterinary clinic employee] confirming ‘neglect or abuse’ was happening.”
Specifically, Heywood reported earlier, “6 News was informed that between six and eight dogs were being housed at the VSDO facility in Oceola Township and that Lanam had been living there as well.
“In addition, 6 News witnessed a wolf hound great Dane mix named Diemos housed in a wire kennel. 6 News was informed that all the dogs on site were similarly housed,” in evident violation of zoning, and without an Oceola Township kennel license.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Lanam gets the boot from AKC
“Those reports led to a revocation of Lanam’s evaluator status with the American Kennel Club [AKC] and a formal investigation by the organization,” Heywood said.
That investigation was the focus of Heywood’s second report about Lanam and the Veteran Service Dogs Organization, aired on August 2, 2024.
During that broadcast, Heywood read aloud AKC spokesperson Brandi Munden’s explanation in writing that, “Revocation of [Lanam’s] Canine Good Citizen evaluator status means he cannot conduct AKC Canine Good Citizen Tests, AKC Community Canine tests, AKC Urban Canine Good Citizen tests, AKC FIT DOG tests, AKC Trick Dog tests, AKC Virtual Home Manners tests, AKC fetch tests, AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy tests, or AKC Temperament Tests.
Further, emailed Munden, “The AKC does not have training developed for service dogs. The AKC Canine Good Citizen Test and AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy are basic skills and manners tests that any dog can be trained for, take and pass. These tests are in no way geared toward service dogs or service dog training, and should not be represented as such.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Nipping & biting”
Among the many WLNS sources, the first whistleblower may have been former Veteran Service Dogs Organization volunteer Edgar Jones, 59.
Jones “began interacting with VSDO in 2020 when he applied for and obtained a service dog, a steel gray pit bull,” Heywood recounted.
The Veteran Service Dogs Organization website claims to have “helped” 1,350 veterans, adopting out 1,298 dogs.
“Despite claims by Lanam that dogs brought into his program had been evaluated for aggression,” Heywood continued, “in just the last year, veterans returned six dogs for aggressive behavior, including nipping and biting.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Half a dozen dogs returned”
Jones estimated to Heywood that “at least a half dozen” dogs were returned in the last year to Veteran Service Dogs Organization, “for different circumstances, but all showing some sort of aggression or herding behavior and nipping things like that.”
Said Heywood, “Text messages shared with 6 News by Joanna Dresden, VSDO’s director of grant acquisitions in 2019, revealed growing concerns expressed by her about aggression toward people from some of the dogs – and one in particular.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Bit me & other dogs”
“The texts reveal Lanam responded to concerns about a dog biting people, including Dresden, being allowed into the program by indicating the dog would be allowed in the building and if it acted up would have to be put in the car. The messages were sent on October 14, 2019, and were part of a string of emails from 2020 to AKC expressing concerns about aggressive dogs being approved by Lanam as Canine Good Citizens.”
Commenting via Reddit on the 6 News exposés, an individual using the screen name quiestelle17 and the further identification “Veteran” said, “This is 100% accurate. Went through the program a few times. One of the dogs I got was aggressive and bit me and other dogs. I can’t lie, I feel so sad for these dogs. It was hard seeing them constantly in crates. But everything that’s come out has been true, as far as I’ve read.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Show us the money”
Heywood claimed that “Guidestar, a nonprofit that provides tax filings and detailed information about nonprofits, reports Veteran Service Dogs Organization had just over $131,000 in operational revenue in 2022,” based on information provided by VSDO itself.”
However, ANIMALS 24-7 discovered, Guidestar does not have any actual IRS Form 990 filings. ProPublica has only one, for 2020, showing donations totaling $58,806 in 2019 and $51,420 in 2020.
“On paper,” said Heywood, “VSDO was formed as a domestic nonprofit with the state of Michigan and received a formal charitable organization designation from the IRS in 2019.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Pleading poverty” but spending bigtime
Whatever the actual Veteran Service Dogs Organization revenue stream, Heywood continued, “Lanam has been pleading poverty in previous months, telling volunteers it was unclear if the organization could pay the phone bill or other utilities,” according to Jones.
“But then, in April, extravagant new purchases started, including “A new security camera system, new bulletproof doors, lawn equipment, a camper trailer, and a Hyundai Palisades,” a vehicle retailing for $52,000 plus.
“All of it, Lanam told a more and more concerned Jones, was the result of grants and the generosity of the Department of Defense,” Heywood said.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Convicted of hacking
The email announcing that Lanam is “stepping away” from Veteran Service Dogs Organization “also claims a person involved in the organization accessed the organization’s systems without authorization and “destroyed Intellectual Property and Confidential Information,” Heywood reported, noting that Lanam himself “was convicted by a federal jury in 2006 on three felony counts of computer intrusion, or hacking, court records show.”
According to a 2008 case summary by Federal District Court Judge Avern Cohn, issued in denial of an appeal by Lanam, the convicted offenses included having “accessed the computer system of Total Mortgage Corporation without authorization,” disabling the Total Mortgage Corporation telephone system and “rendering the system vulnerable to subsequent attacks via the Internet.”
Lanam’s LinkedIn page identifies him as president of a telecommunications and Internet hosting provider company called Wolfnet Worldwide from November 1990 to April 2015, and of ZenWolf Technologies Group, Inc. from August 2014 to present.
The Wolfnet Worldwide dates partially overlap Lanam’s tenure in the U.S. Air Force. The ZenWolf Technologies Group dates wholly overlap the existence of Veteran Service Dogs Organization.
Bradley Lane Croft at arrest.
(News 4, San Antonio)
Bradley Lane Croft
The Lanam episode, apparently at least partially funded by Department of Defense grants meant to help actual combat veterans, somewhat resembles the case of Bradley Lane Croft, also 52, sentenced by senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra on April 30, 2021 to serve two months short of ten years in prison “for scheming to defraud the federal government of more than $1.5 million in Veterans Affairs GI Bill benefits to train service canines and their handlers,” summarized the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas when the sentence was rendered.
“In addition to the prison term,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office media release said, “Ezra ordered that Croft pay $1.5 million in restitution and be placed on supervised release for a period of three years after completing his prison term.”
American SPCA president Matt Bershadker (far left) honored Bradley Lane Croft (far right) at the 2016 ASPCA awards luncheon.
Honored by ASPCA & HSUS
Croft, owner of the Universal K-9 Inc. dog training center in San Antonio, was funded by the Animal Farm Foundation from 2013 to 2017 to prepare pit bulls for police work, and had been honored for his work by both the American SPCA and the Humane Society of the U.S.
Judge Ezra on November 6, 2019 convicted Croft of eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of aggravated identity theft, two counts of money laundering and two counts of making a false tax return.
Elaborated the U.S. Attorney’s Office “Testimony during trial revealed that beginning in 2015, Croft provided false information in applications to the Texas Veterans Commission, including instructors’ names, certifications and training documents to receive GI Bill educational benefit payments. Croft and others solicited veterans as students indicating that they could use their GI Bill benefits to pay for a dog handler’s courses that cost between $6,500 and $12,000.
Bradley Lane Croft. (Beth Clifton collage)
185 fraudulent claims
“During the scheme, Universal K-9 filed approximately 185 fraudulent claims relating to the education of about 132 veterans.
“Trial testimony also revealed that Croft submitted fraudulent income tax returns, showing his 2016 reported income as $2,000 and his reported income as $2,000 for 2017.”
Animal Farm Foundation claimed to have placed more than 30 pit bulls with police agencies during Croft’s tenure. Croft told media that the program included more than 100.
(Merritt & Beth Clifton)
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