'Blind' veteran who scammed $1M in disability payments: How did it go on so long?

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — For 30 years, North Carolina resident John Paul Cook collected Veteran Affairs disability payments, even garnering several increases along the way as his allegedly poor vision continued to worsen.

By 2016, with those increases for the severity of his "disability," he was pulling in $3,990 a month. In total, from 1987-2017, Cook, 57, hauled in $978,138 in VA disability payments and perks such as money for a home remodel.