More Light on Claims of Repeat Candidate : D.A. Brings Charge; Air Force Bars ’82 Nominee

When Democratic activists formed a committee last year to learn the truth about perennial political candidate George H. Margolis, he told them, “You’ll be in the dark for eternity.”

But state and military investigators say they have shed some light on Margolis’ mysterious background.

Margolis, 56, has been charged by the Ventura County district attorney’s office with fraudulently claiming he is a 100% disabled veteran to obtain license plates meant for handicapped drivers and avoid paying automobile registration fees. The infraction is a misdemeanor; penalties can include a brief jail sentence and three years’ probation.

He has also been barred from the Los Angeles Air Force Station in El Segundo, where he worked as a volunteer, after military investigators say they discovered that he was posing as an Air Force colonel and had obtained corresponding military identification. He used this identification to gain membership in Southern California officers’ clubs, military authorities said.

Margolis, who lives in Simi Valley, did not respond to repeated messages left with his answering service over a six-day span.

Democratic Nominee in ’82

Margolis was the 1982 Democratic nominee in the 21st Congressional District against Rep. Bobbi Fiedler, a Northridge Republican. He acknowledged he won the primary because voters confused him with Assemblyman Burt Margolin, a Los Angeles Democrat also on the ballot that year.

Margolis unsuccessfully sought the congressional nomination again last year. Fears that he might emerge as the victor again in a large field of little-known candidates prompted local Democratic leaders to form a committee to try to expose his background. He has also run for local, state, and county offices since 1966 without success.

Margolis’ claims that he was a high-ranking, decorated and totally disabled veteran are only the latest in a series of incidents involving bogus or inflated credentials, according to an Air Force spokesman. In the past, both USC and Pennsylvania State University, which Margolis claimed he attended, reported that they had no record of him. And U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston denied that Margolis had served as his adviser, as Margolis claimed.

Paul Sewell, Air Force chief of media relations for the western United States, said Margolis had turned up so often on military bases carrying phony military identification as a high-ranking officer between 1974 and 1986 that his case “would seem to be a terminal nightmare.”

“He’s a man with a very smooth personality, very easy to like, very easy to believe, and he found some flaws in the system that allowed him to get hold of blank documents to apply for various forms of identification,” Sewell said. “I think he could have conned some people into inadvertently helping him out.”

In the most recent incident, Sewell said, Margolis was confronted by agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the FBI last July 11 on the Los Angeles Air Force Station.

“He admitted to them that he was not a retired Air Force colonel and that he had never been in the Air Force,” Sewell said. “At that time, he turned over what we hope is every form he held that identified him as a retired Air Force colonel.”

This included a uniformed services identification and privilege card issued to Margolis by the Edwards Air Force Base Police Squadron on June 12, 1986. It was unclear how the squadron came to issue the card, which can be used to enter military bases, obtain highly discounted rooms at the bases and use cut-rate commissaries, gas stations and medical facilities.

It was not known whether Margolis took advantage of these services, Sewell said. Margolis was required to pay a $75 tab he ran up at the Los Angeles Air Force Station Officer’s Open Mess, according to Sewell.

Margolis had membership cards in that club, in the Orange County Chapter of the Retired Officers Assn., the Officers’ Club at the Naval Construction Battalion Center at Point Hueneme and the Military Order of the Purple Heart. He was neither an officer nor a recipient of a Purple Heart for being wounded in battle, military officials said.

No Threat to Security

Margolis did not have access to any intelligence or confidential military information on installations, Sewell said.

Margolis’ actual military record was modest in contrast with his claims, Sewell said. He was a private in the Army between Oct. 22, 1952, and June 11, 1954, records show. He handled supplies and did not see any action in the Korean War, Sewell said. Margolis never served in the Air Force and is not considered a military retiree, military records show.

He does have a disability related to his military service, according to the Veterans Administration. He receives $69 a month from the VA, though a VA spokesman declined to provide more specific information.

Margolis has a 10% military disability because of a skin disorder that was identified when he was released from the Army, said Ken Rawlinson, a special investigator for the Department of Motor Vehicle’s Thousand Oaks office. Rawlinson, who pursued the case against Margolis of the handicapped license plate, said Margolis told him he had suffered other injuries in an automobile accident unrelated to his military duty.

Besides seeking the handicapped plates, which entitle drivers to use specifically designated, convenient parking spaces, Margolis sought and received a waiver for registration fees for his two cars as a 100%-disabled veteran, Rawlinson said. He estimated this saved Margolis an average of $140 annually for his 1978 Chevrolet and 1976 Cadillac since 1985.

In his application, Margolis represented that he was “rated as 100% disabled by the Veterans Administration or the military service from which I was discharged with a disorder that substantially impairs mobility as a result of injury or disease suffered while on active service from the armed forces,” Rawlinson said.

Many people submit fraudulent documents for phony licenses--which may be used for credit-card scams, bad checks or Medicare fraud--but it is unusual for someone to falsely claim to be a disabled veteran, Rawlinson said.

“This is the first time I have ever gone after anyone for fraudulently posing as a disabled veteran,” he said. The military alerted the DMV to Margolis’ impersonation after its investigation last summer.

Rawlinson said Margolis told him last week that he would voluntarily surrender today to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, where he will be booked and given a court date. Bail will be set at $1,000, Rawlinson said.

Military authorities say Margolis has a long history of pawning himself off as a man of military rank.

In 1985, he illegally entered the New Cumberland Army Depot in Pennsylvania using a fraudulent military identification card and claiming he was a retired colonel, Sewell said. At least 20 years of active military duty are usually needed to be a retiree.

In 1976, military police stopped Margolis from trying to sell a Marine Corps uniform at El Toro Military Base near Tustin, Sewell said. It was not known how Margolis obtained the uniform. He told the police he was an Air Force colonel at that time, Sewell said.

In 1974, he was stopped on Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc with a colonel’s identification sticker on his car, Sewell said. Again, it was not known how he had obtained the sticker.

Margolis previously maintained that the Air Force has no record of his service because it was “classified,” but the Air Force has called his claim “nonsense.”

The most recent case was turned over to the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles for possible prosecution last July, Sewell said, but a decision was made not to file charges.

“They really couldn’t prove a loss to the government in terms of money or anything else,” Sewell said.