Corporate Stolen Valor

The following post is from a Navy veteran and CA attorney.

What is Corporate Stolen Valor? 

Stolen Valor describes the acts of individuals who falsely claim to have received military decorations. This legal usage comes from the Stolen Valor Act of 2013, codified as 18 U.S.C. §704. Since valor isn’t a tangible item subject to larceny, the phrase refers to the idea of dishonestly associating yourself with somebody else’s achievements. Individuals found to have violated the law are subject to serious consequences, including imprisonment. 

So Corporate Stolen Valor means—what? A company cannot receive the Silver Star, nor claim to have done so. What businesses can, and often do, say is that they value and admire veterans so much that they go out of their way to employ them. They will publicly announce their intention to hire thousands of veterans, and then publicly congratulate themselves for meeting or exceeding their stated goal. Verifying that they have done any of the things they claim is difficult, thanks to the steps these companies take to guard their employment information. It takes less effort to associate your brand with the sacrifices of veterans than it does to tangibly benefit veterans. For example, the Walt Disney Company announced in 2022 that its “Heroes Work Here” initiative had led to the company hiring over 12,500 veterans in ten years. Their press release neglected to mention that Disney is a federal contractor required to take positive steps to recruit veterans, and that they actively resisted attempts by the Department of Labor to verify their hiring claims.  

It's bad enough that business executives make these announcements for their own glory. But many of these same businesses, like Disney, have sizable contracts with the government. VEVRAA purports to require that veterans receive “priority in referral” for job openings. So not only aren’t the corporations going above and beyond what a less-patriotic company does, as they so loudly claim, they aren’t even meeting the obligations contractors supposedly accrue by taking taxpayer money. Because of the current flaws in VEVRAA, along with the lack of government enforcement, this can be perfectly legal.  

Hence, the concept of Corporate Stolen Valor. Large companies can take the positive characteristics associated with military service from veterans and give nothing in return. This practice affects considerably more people than some guy buying a Navy Achievement Medal he didn’t earn, but unlike that guy, corporations have no deterrent.