Today I read that "the system" has a purposeful leak in the already shaky VA budget in Seattle.
I am ashamed of them, all ten of these local criminal perpetrators, and a large number of others in other locations who have exploited their own fellows funds, of and any system that winks at kickbacks that drain legitimate funds from legitimate services. And yes, it does make me very angry.
Who did they think they were robbing? Would they throw their buddies under the truck, to get a free ride?
Here's a quote from today's story: Originally published Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 7:41 PM
in the Seattle Times.
Seattle VA fraud case sparks drop in mileage-reimbursement claims
Ten people, including two VA clerks who admitted taking kickbacks, were charged in federal court in Seattle, and several are to be sentenced this week. Others already have been given prison terms of up to two years.
They acknowledged abusing a national program that allows veterans to be reimbursed for travel expenses if they meet certain income- and disability-related criteria.
Some reported driving across the state to appointments even if they lived nearby, and some reported traveling when they didn’t have appointments at all.
Their haul: more than $180,000 from late 2010 to mid-2012.
The number of investigations into such activity has soared nationally since 2008, when the VA’s rate for mileage reimbursement jumped from 11 cents, where it had been set for 30 years, to 41.5 cents, O’Neill says.
There was one investigation in 2006, one in 2007, and one in 2008.
In the past 18 months, the VA’s Office of the Inspector General has opened 225 investigations of benefit travel fraud and made 125 arrests.
Among the recent cases:
• 16 people were indicted in Cleveland last year and charged with stealing a combined $250,000 in fraudulent mileage reimbursements.
• A veteran in Maine pleaded guilty last September to charges of falsely claiming more than $17,000 in travel reimbursements.
• Last April, a veteran in Oklahoma City was sentenced to probation and ordered to return more than $36,000 in false mileage claims.
The investigation into the Seattle case, which began in early 2012, determined that two of the four VA clerks who then processed travel-benefit claims, Nick Hall and Keishjuan Daniels, had been recruiting veterans to submit false mileage forms.
The veterans would frequently claim they had traveled to their appointments from addresses in Eastern Washington, hundreds of miles away.
The veterans then would take vouchers from Hall and Daniels, go to another window and walk away with cash. They’d meet up with Hall or Daniels nearby — in the restroom, or a stairwell, or the VA canteen — and fork over half the money.
“It was policy that nobody on the clerk’s side would check,” said Hall’s lawyer, Stephan Illa. “If you went and said you were driving in from Wenatchee, the clerks would just pay it.”
I am ashamed of them, all ten of these local criminal perpetrators, and a large number of others in other locations who have exploited their own fellows funds, of and any system that winks at kickbacks that drain legitimate funds from legitimate services. And yes, it does make me very angry.
Who did they think they were robbing? Would they throw their buddies under the truck, to get a free ride?
Here's a quote from today's story: Originally published Sunday, July 28, 2013 at 7:41 PM
in the Seattle Times.
Seattle VA fraud case sparks drop in mileage-reimbursement claims
Ten people, including two VA clerks who admitted taking kickbacks, were charged in federal court in Seattle, and several are to be sentenced this week. Others already have been given prison terms of up to two years.
They acknowledged abusing a national program that allows veterans to be reimbursed for travel expenses if they meet certain income- and disability-related criteria.
Some reported driving across the state to appointments even if they lived nearby, and some reported traveling when they didn’t have appointments at all.
Their haul: more than $180,000 from late 2010 to mid-2012.
The number of investigations into such activity has soared nationally since 2008, when the VA’s rate for mileage reimbursement jumped from 11 cents, where it had been set for 30 years, to 41.5 cents, O’Neill says.
There was one investigation in 2006, one in 2007, and one in 2008.
In the past 18 months, the VA’s Office of the Inspector General has opened 225 investigations of benefit travel fraud and made 125 arrests.
Among the recent cases:
• 16 people were indicted in Cleveland last year and charged with stealing a combined $250,000 in fraudulent mileage reimbursements.
• A veteran in Maine pleaded guilty last September to charges of falsely claiming more than $17,000 in travel reimbursements.
• Last April, a veteran in Oklahoma City was sentenced to probation and ordered to return more than $36,000 in false mileage claims.
The investigation into the Seattle case, which began in early 2012, determined that two of the four VA clerks who then processed travel-benefit claims, Nick Hall and Keishjuan Daniels, had been recruiting veterans to submit false mileage forms.
The veterans would frequently claim they had traveled to their appointments from addresses in Eastern Washington, hundreds of miles away.
The veterans then would take vouchers from Hall and Daniels, go to another window and walk away with cash. They’d meet up with Hall or Daniels nearby — in the restroom, or a stairwell, or the VA canteen — and fork over half the money.
“It was policy that nobody on the clerk’s side would check,” said Hall’s lawyer, Stephan Illa. “If you went and said you were driving in from Wenatchee, the clerks would just pay it.”
Taxpayers should support the military personnel who defend their country. But they should seek recompense for unscrupulous greed spiriting away the very support that the military desperately needs. Will the perpetrators claim falsely that they have Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome? I say they are CAUSING their own to suffer more wounds by stealing the money that might be offering therapy for those who are truly battered.
Let these scoundrels serve as highway janitors or repavers of military roads to work off big fines. Let them be taxed for the funds they have pilfered.
Let these scoundrels serve as highway janitors or repavers of military roads to work off big fines. Let them be taxed for the funds they have pilfered.
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