Capt. Duran L. Hepburn was convicted March 31, 2026, at a general court-martial held at Wheeler Army Airfield, Hawaii, after pleading guilty to larceny, falsifying an official leave document, and three counts of making false official statements.
According to military court records obtained by The Salty Soldier, Hepburn stole approximately $84,683 in Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) funds between November 27, 2020, and November 25, 2023, while assigned to or stationed near Kadena Air Base in Japan.
Despite the substantial amount of money involved, Hepburn received no confinement, fine, or forfeiture of pay as part of his sentence. Instead, military judge Col. Rebecca L. Farrell sentenced him to dismissal from the Army, the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge.
The sentence was consistent with a negotiated plea agreement that specifically prohibited confinement and required his dismissal.
The Army’s charge sheet reveals that Hepburn’s misconduct involved false statements about where his family lived and who qualified as his dependents.
Between November 2020 and November 2023, Hepburn falsely certified that his family resided in Woodhaven, New York, when they were actually living in Georgia, according to the court-martial findings.
The distinction matters because military housing allowances can vary significantly depending on a service member’s assigned location, dependent status, and qualifying family residence, particularly when the service member is stationed overseas.
In a separate false statement dated February 7, 2022, Hepburn submitted a memorandum to the Kadena Air Base finance office claiming he had a dependent living in New York City. Military prosecutors established that the statement was false and that Hepburn knew it was false when he made it.
That same day, Hepburn also falsely identified his grandmother as a secondary dependent in a statement submitted to the finance office.
The records establish that Hepburn made these false representations, although the publicly available charge sheet does not provide a complete accounting of how the improper payments were calculated or how much money was obtained through each individual statement.
Hepburn’s military career began with a public celebration of his commissioning.
In June 2020, York College, part of the City University of New York system, congratulated Hepburn and other veteran graduates who had recently received their Army commissions.
An Army ROTC profile from the same period identified Hepburn as a newly commissioned second lieutenant with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts and Education.
He entered active duty in the Army’s Ordnance Corps, a branch responsible for maintaining and supporting military equipment, weapons, and ammunition.
His first duty station was Kadena Air Base, Japan.
It was at that same installation that the misconduct leading to his eventual court-martial took place.
The larceny period identified in the Army’s court records began in November 2020, approximately five months after York College publicly celebrated his commissioning.
By the time of his prosecution, Hepburn had risen to the rank of captain and was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 25th Division Sustainment Troops Battalion, 25th Division Sustainment Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.
The housing-allowance fraud was not the only misconduct addressed during Hepburn’s court-martial.
According to the charge sheet, Hepburn altered an official Department of the Army Form 31 on August 18, 2022, changing the requested period of leave from 19 days to 33 days.
The military judge convicted him of the offense under Article 105a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which addresses false or unauthorized pass offenses.
The Army also originally charged Hepburn with an additional false official statement and an offense under Article 134 involving the alleged forgery of another Army captain’s signature.
Those two specifications were dismissed, according to the official Statement of Trial Results.
Hepburn ultimately pleaded guilty to five specifications: one count of larceny, one count involving false leave paperwork, and three counts of making false official statements.
Perhaps the most notable aspect of Hepburn’s case is the punishment he received.
The Statement of Trial Results, signed March 31, 2026, explicitly lists no confinement, no fines, no forfeitures, no restriction, and no reprimand.
Under the plea agreement, the military judge was required to adjudge dismissal from the Army and was prohibited from imposing confinement.
For commissioned officers, dismissal is a punitive separation comparable to a dishonorable discharge for enlisted service members. It carries serious professional and legal consequences and is substantially different from an ordinary administrative separation.
Nevertheless, the sentence did not include any time behind bars.
The publicly available records also do not establish whether Hepburn was separately ordered to repay the stolen housing funds through restitution, debt collection, or another administrative process. The absence of a fine or forfeiture in the court-martial sentence does not necessarily mean the government has abandoned efforts to recover the money.
Hepburn’s case illustrates how a military officer can be convicted of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the government yet receive a sentence that contains no confinement.
For Hepburn, the criminal proceedings ended with a conviction and a punitive dismissal sentence, bringing an abrupt and consequential end to the Army officer career that began with his celebrated commissioning in 2020.
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