Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Allegations that Senior DOE Official Received Kickbacks from Contractor

A contractor employee assigned to work at the FBI Headquarters as a database administrator pleaded guilty of making false statements to FBI agents in connection with an official investigation. This individual worked at FBI Headquarters for about three and a half years between 2011 to 2014. Prior to that, way back in 2004, he was somehow involved with the Department of Energy where he facilitated transactions between a senior DOE official and a private company doing business with DOE.

According to the Department of Justice, this individual lied to FBI investigators about a financial transaction that he facilitated between a senior DOE official and a private company. Specifically, at the request of the senior official, this individual served as a conduit for purported consulting payments from the private company to the senior official. The individual prepared and submitted false invoices to the private company for $140 thousand in services that he neither rendered or performed. Upon receiving payment from the private company and withholding a portion thereof to cover tax liabilities and other personal expenses, this individual made several cash disbursements to the senior official.

During an interview with the FBI, he denied making any such payments to the senior official. He also failed to disclose these transactions in his application for Top Secret clearance even though he was required to do so.

Look for more announcements relating to this case and investigation. There are at least two other parties to this fraud, the senior DOE official and the private company or representatives of the private company, neither of which will have a much of a defense now that the bag man has pleaded guilty.

It is probably not wise to lie to investigators when they come around asking pointed questions about events that occurred a decade earlier. Actually, its not wise to lie, period. Chances are very likely that they already know the answers to the questions they're asking and are merely solidifying or building their evidence.

No comments:

Post a Comment