A man pleaded guilty in federal court to impersonating a member of the U.S. military in order to defraud Fort Leonard Wood employees of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Court records show that Steven Christopher Gibson pleaded guilty on August 8 as part of an agreement to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Settlement documents indicate that in 2022, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division learned that trainees at Fort Leonard Wood were being targeted for fraud. In one case, a victim told investigators they had been contacted by an unknown first sergeant who claimed there was a payment issue that left the victim behind on pay. The first sergeant, later revealed to be Gibson, told the victim he would need to send money through CashApp to fix the payment issue.

Investigators found that the CashApp account the victim had transferred money to belonged to Gibson, who had deposited the funds into bank accounts outside of Missouri. Further investigation revealed that Gibson had connections to several personal bank accounts belonging to other people allegedly involved in the scam.

The documents state that additional records revealed that “…Gibson had defrauded or attempted to defraud over 2,000 military personnel out of approximately $800,000, either by himself or through his co-conspirators, in the same manner that was successfully used against (the victim).”

Gibson was ordered to pay $300,000 in the case and faces prison time.