In a stunningly embarrassing twist, the chief investigator at the Oklahoma Veterans Affairs Department has been fired and is facing prosecution after authorities concluded he is a fraud.

Steven B. Pancoast Jr., 41, was never the state-certified law enforcement officer he pretended to be, authorities allege. His paperwork turned out to be faked.

Instead, he is an ex-convict who spent almost three years in a New Jersey prison in the 1990s before moving to Oklahoma, they say.

Friday night, a Canadian County judge authorized a search of Pancoast’s home in Mustang and signed a warrant for his arrest.