Woman who received mortgage-free home in Georgia sentenced to prison for military benefits fraud
By Graham Cawthon
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EFFINGHAM COUNTY, Georgia (WJCL) — A woman who was gifted a mortgage-free home in Effingham County has been sentenced to prison for fraudulently claiming her ex-husband’s military benefits.
Miranda Briggs, aka Miranda Rachel Fisher, presented herself as a military widow. And she founded the non-profit Fight the War Within Foundation.
But court documents state she was not married to U.S. Army Ranger Garrett Briggs at the time of his death.
Garrett Briggs died by suicide in January 2018, two weeks after the birth of the couple’s daughter.
Indictments state Miranda Briggs “undertook a scheme (from February 2018 to November 2023) to defraud the United States by falsely claiming to have been married to (Garrett Briggs).”
The indictment stated that, around February 2018, she applied for a number of VA benefits, falsely claiming to be Garrett Briggs’ surviving spouse. As part of her application, court records state, she falsely claimed she had continuously lived with Garrett Briggs since their marriage in November 2015.
“It was a struggle after he passed, finally,” Miranda told WJCL in 2022, after receiving a mortgage-free home thanks to ‘Operation Finally Home’. “Just getting back up on our feet and taking those next steps through life. It was not really in the cards that being a homeowner was a thing.”
Court records state that CHAMPVA benefits paid her a total of $49,000 between 2018 and 2023. And DIC benefits paid her about $80,000 during the same timeframe. Both of those were due to, according to the indictment, Miranda Briggs’ false claims.
Briggs, of Rincon, pled guilty to Wire Fraud back in January.
Briggs will serve two months behind bars, then be on supervised release for three years. In addition, she has been ordered to pay back $129,360.98 in restitution.
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