These images from an affidavit prepared by the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General shows Gregory Heimann, of Princeton, moving a chicken coop on his property without assistance. Federal authorities say Heimann, who was arrested Monday in Missouri, faked his own death after defrauding the VA of over $240,000 by misrepresenting his health. (Screenshot from court documents)

A Washington County man accused of fraudulently taking more than $240,000 from the Department of Veterans Affairs has been arrested in Missouri, more than a year after federal investigators say he faked his own drowning and then disappeared.

Gregory Heimann, 51, of Princeton, was charged last spring in U.S. District Court with making false statements to the VA, which had paid him $244,075 from 2016 to 2024 because the department believed he was paraplegic, according to court records. An investigator for the VA said Heimann lied to the federal government and that he had been seen several times walking without any help.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Monday in a news release that police obtained an arrest warrant for Heimann on April 29, 2024 — 10 days after he left his home with a canoe and some personal belongings, according to the marshals.

Game wardens and civilians spent several days looking for Heimann near a river by the Canadian border, believing he had drowned, but the U.S. Marshals Service said investigators eventually realized Heimann was not dead.

On Thursday, federal officers in Missouri spotted Heimann at an Amtrak station in La Plata. The marshals service said Heimann tried giving them a fake name before he was arrested.

The marshals service didn’t say Monday whether Heimann faces any other charges related to their search.

The false statements charge he faces is a Class D felony. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Heimann still has yet to enter a plea to the charges in court and is awaiting extradition to Maine, according to court records.

Heimann had been receiving money regularly from the VA since at least 2006, according to special agent Todd Sweet from the VA’s Office of Inspector General, who wrote an affidavit for Heimann’s arrest.

Heimann served in the U.S. Army from 1993 to 1997 and was enlisted in the U.S. Army National Guard until 2005, according to the affidavit.

In 2005, a clinician diagnosed Heimann with spinal conditions. He was considered paraplegic as of 2008, Sweet wrote, and was able to file a claim for unemployability that August. Sweet wrote that clinicians had to rely on what Heimann said because they couldn’t find “structural evidence” of his condition using imaging technology, like an MRI or a CT scan.

In 2022, Sweet said he was asked to review Heimann’s case that year as part of a proactive review of all beneficiaries who had reported they couldn’t use their hands or feet. The VA had written a letter to Heimann that year summarizing his benefits, which included $5,000 a month for disability.

Sweet quickly found that what Heimann was telling the VA and his health care providers didn’t line up with what he was posting on social media. On Facebook, Heimann shared images of himself walking without any help, and in 2012, he wrote about taking a hunting trip.

In 2019, Heimann spent time in Washington state, where police said he had been involved in two fights, including one in which he was charged with assault. In 2021, a game warden in Maine issued Heimann a warning for driving his all-terrain vehicle on a public road.

Police also surveilled Heimann outside his home and throughout town, observing him dragging a chicken coop in his yard “for several feet” without a wheelchair or other assistance.

Still, Heimann told a new clinician in 2023 that he couldn’t walk and needed a wheelchair. After that appointment, Sweet wrote, he and another investigator followed Heimann to a hardware store, where they filmed him walking and standing without any help, and later shared their findings with the clinician.

“This is completely out of line with what he stated was going on with him symptomatically,” the clinician said in Sweet’s affidavit.

Heimann agreed to meet with investigators in February 2024. Sweet said they confronted him with the evidence, and he admitted his condition began to improve around 2015. Sweet said he also admitted “that he had been motivated by money.”

“When asked why he would appear in a wheelchair for a medical exam and be seen later that same day walking, Heimann replied ‘stupidity,’” Sweet wrote.