Because several people investigated it, including a man who was also an ex-military member. This ex-military member reached out to the man who would have been Richard’s superior, who assured him that Richard was lying and he had never gotten the awards he’d claimed to receive, nor had he embarked on missions he wrote about. However, the Quorans who tried to raise awareness about the issue were subsequently banned and it became apparent that it was impossible to speak out about Richard’s deception without punitive measures being taken, so most remained silent, including me.

Furthermore, when Richard was politely and warily confronted about the issue (and the comment threads might still be up; I’m not sure), he provided no actual evidence to the contrary, but rather went on a furious rant about how people did not believe him and no one would trust him.