Woman who received mortgage-free home faces up to 20 years for military benefits fraud

By Graham Cawthon

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    Georgia (WJCL) — A woman who was gifted a mortgage-free home in Effingham County has pleaded guilty to 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 filed last summer 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).”

Briggs, of Rincon, pled guilty to Wire Fraud. The guilty plea subjects Briggs to a statutory penalty of up to 20 years in prison, along with financial penalties and restitution.

U.S. District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood will schedule a sentencing hearing for Briggs after completion of a pre-sentence investigation by U.S. Probation Services.

“This guilty plea holds the defendant accountable for defrauding vital VA programs that provide monetary benefits for survivors of service members and veterans,” said Special Agent in Charge David Spilker with the VA OIG Southeast Field Office. “The VA OIG will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to root out fraudulent activity and seek the prosecution of those who would compromise the integrity of VA’s programs and services.”

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.

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