Tahoe, Carson docs duped in mega scam
By Matt Gutman, Chris Kilmer and Lauren Effron, 20/20
When Navy veteran Carol Roberts first met A.J. Dicken, who boasted about being the most decorated Navy SEAL ever, she was in awe of him, and she wasn’t the first.
For years, Dicken, 57, claimed he was an ex-Navy SEAL who had served in dozens of covert combat missions, from the jungles of Vietnam to the caves of Afghanistan. He proudly wore the SEAL trident insignia and loved to show off his numerous awards. He would regale listeners about his mission to assassinate Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and his death defying swoop into Pakistan to make the kill shot on Osama Bin Laden. He also carried discharge papers that included two Medals of Honor, and even a laudatory email from Col. Oliver North. He’s actually a former Lake Tahoe bartender
But it was all an elaborate lie, one that he would allegedly use to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from his victims — and something else harder to put a price on: their honor.
Roberts met Dicken at a military-style self-defense training school he started in an airplane hangar in Carson City, where she took some shooting and self-defense classes, along with Greg Ginn, a surgeon in South Lake Tahoe, and Brian Romaneschi, an ear-nose-throat specialist in Carson Valley.
The business was popular with the locals, and seemed to be booming. But Dicken’s dream to launch his own international security firm was expensive. He convinced Ginn and Romaneschi to invest upward of $850,000 in the new venture.
Never was IN the military, but worked FOR the military for some time. One thing that proved true 9 times out of 10 was that the guys who boasted most had done the least. The real warriors and heroes did not talk about it.
When speaking with one of these docs as he was investing, etc., I was suspicious. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I’m thankful that I did not have to hear of their demise in that area of the world…in the news. They are fortunate that it was only money they lost. A bit cavalier thinking on their part. Lesson learned.
If he said he had been in Nam, that should have been a red flag. He’s too young to have served. He would have been around 17 when the war ended. I have a young cousin who is proudly serving as a Navy Seal now and it’s an insult to him and all of Navy Seals that this ass claims to have been one.
This should fall under the Stolen Honor act and the guy should be prosecuted and given a long sentence as a con-man, liar and thief. I can imagine he lived very well for a short time with the ill gotten money and he planned to steal much more and disappear. Why people think they can get away with this stuff when a simple check would reveal their scam is always a mystery yet it usually works for a short time until the money or investors run out or someone gets suspicious.