Former Veterans Affairs investigator who faked background, training gets five years in prison

EL RENO — The former state investigator who turned out to be a fraud all along was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison and ordered to get a psychological evaluation.

"I made a huge mistake," Steven B. Pancoast Jr., 43, said at the sentencing. "I did things I shouldn't have done."

Pancoast was employed at the Oklahoma Veterans Affairs Department as a safety programs administrator. He had printed up business cards, though, identifying himself as a special agent in charge of the internal affairs bureau, which didn't actually exist.

He ended up working alongside federal Homeland Security agents and investigators with the attorney general's office. With them, he carried a gun and conducted searches and interviewed witnesses. He became known as a hard worker.

Attorney General Scott Pruitt commended him for his help in one case, the investigation of an Oklahoma City abortion doctor, writing, “We could not have done it without you.”