Phony Navy SEAL Hit With 3 Years of Real Prison Time for Scamming Crystal Lake-Based Nonprofit

A California man was sentenced to three years in prison Monday after he admitted his claims of being a highly decorated U.S. Navy SEAL capable of rescuing kidnapped aid workers overseas were part of a scheme to scam a Crystal Lake-based nonprofit group out of thousands of dollars, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Along with the jail term, William Burley, 36, also faces three years of supervised release and must pay back $32,454 to International Aid Services, a global aid agency that provides relief to impovershied parts of Africa, the DOJ stated in a release Monday.

Burley's sentencing comes about four months after he cut a deal with federal prosecutors and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in August. As part of the plea deal, Burley, who is from Yucaipa, California, confessed his plans to defraud the IAS — which includes its American branch in Crystal Lake, as well as the international arm in Stockholm, Sweden — in 2012.

According to his written plea agreement, Burley approached the agency in July of 2012 and offered to help negotiate the release of three IAS workers who had been kidnapped in Somali. As part of his pitch, Burley falsely claimed he was former SEAL and consultant for the Navy and Defense and State departments who had earned numerous citations, such as an Afghanistan Campaign Medal and a Global War on Terrorism Medal.

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The IAS paid the travel expenses to Kenya for Burley and another person so that the two could negotiate with the workers' kidnappers. When that failed, Burley proposed a rescue plan in September of 2012 and continued to misrepresent his accomplishments.

Eventually, the IAS uncovered Burley's deception and severed ties with him in October of 2012. The workers finally were freed in May of 2014.

That same month, a federal grand jury indicted Burley, and he originally faced three counts of wire fraud. If he had been convicted of the original charges, Burley could have been sentenced up to 2o years for each count. He pleaded guilty to a single wire fraud count on Aug. 30.

photo via Shutterstock

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