A man from Western North Carolina will spend several months in prison…after fraudulently collecting nearly $1 million dollars in disability benefits from the VA. A federal judge sentenced John Cook, 58, of Marshall, to 10 months in prison, five of which he will serve in home confinement. Cook had pleaded guilty in July 2021…after claiming he was legally blind following a service-related injury in the mid-1980s. He had then received disability payments from 1987 through 2017, totaling approximately $978,138. Contrary to Cook’s filed claims, he repeatedly passed vision screening tests to renew or obtain a driver’s license in North and South Carolina.