Retired Master Sergeant Accused of Bigamy and Fraud By Korean Wife

It amazes me that after already being convicted of forgery that no one scrutinized his divorce paperwork before letting this guy off the hook and allowing him to retire:

Prosecutors in South Korea have reopened the case of a U.S. soldier who allegedly tricked a local woman into a bigamous marriage and left her $50,000 in debt when he returned to his wife in America, according to South Korean news reports.

Rachel Lee, 43, a divorced mother from Chuncheon, said a friend introduced her to Master Sgt. Scott Fuller, 40, in August 2013 when Fuller was serving with the Korea-based 2nd Infantry Division. The pair hit it off and married in a traditional Korean ceremony just four months later. However, documents Fuller submitted to have the marriage recognized in Korea, including Army and U.S. Embassy certifications of his single status, turned out to be forged, she said.

“He’s a con, and he killed my soul and broke my heart,” Lee said of the deception, which was discovered only after Fuller abruptly returned to the U.S. in May 2014. “He just left without saying anything. He totally ruined my life.”

The Army returned Fuller — who was stationed at Fort Drum in New York — to South Korea when it discovered the forgeries.

In October 2014, a South Korean court found him guilty of forgery and sentenced him to eight months in prison. The Army knocked him down in rank to sergeant first class after an Article 15 hearing, according to documents provided by Lee to Stars and Stripes. The details of the case were then verified by a U.S. military official in Korea.

Fuller then convinced Lee, the Korean court and the Army that he had, at last, divorced his American wife after producing what he claimed was a divorce judgment document from a New York court. His sentence was reduced on appeal to a $10,000 fine with no prison time, and his rank was restored. Fuller also used the document to obtain a dependent identification card for Lee that listed her as his spouse.

It wasn’t until August of this year that she found out — from Fuller’s American wife, Marianne — that the divorce document was also a forgery. The Army quickly determined that the document was likely not genuine. Nonetheless, U.S. and Korean officials declined to take further action, Lee said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but what a mess.