IEC Journal

UF Professor accused of NASA Grant Fraud

Federal investigators allege that 59 year old Samim Anghaie, a professor at the University of Florida, and three of his family members fraudulently received millions of dollars from NASA and then laundered money to personal bank accounts, court documents show.  Full story at:

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090226/NEWS01/902260317/1006/news01

For more information on this alleged fraud:

http://www.mahalo.com/Samim_Anghaie

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/25/professor.raid/index.html

Employee removal for in part misuse of Gov credit card upheld.

Among other charges, this Federal employee was removed for misusing the Government credit card which was provide for her to charge her move to Washington DC.  See non-precedential FedCir case at http://www.fedsmith.com/articles/records/file/Stribling08-3336.pdf 

No Ordinary Abuse

We try to give a low priority to stories of garden variety abuses by government employees, because they tend to give a misleading impression of a workforce that is overwhelmingly honest and competent. However, an IEC member sent us a link to one story of such audacious misconduct as to make it an instructional example that will hold an audience's attention:

Federal prosecutors say a Kansas City man and woman used a government computer at the US Department of Agriculture in Kansas City to run two online prostitution businesses. The web sites were called USA Honies and Darc Phoenix.

Edited Jan. 22 to correct typo.

Using Government Employees To Benefit Private Business

From the Boston Globe:

Several US marshals and a lawyer for the federal agency violated ethics regulations by assigning deputy marshals to escort Fox Sports broadcasters to and from sporting events, including two games of the 2007 World Series in Boston, according to a report released yesterday by US Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

The IG report is available at the DOJ web site.

Employee's removal for violation of last chance agreement upheld

VA employee was removed for misusing his government computer--sending obsene images.  The case was settled with a last chance agreement, which waived his rights to appeal as well as reinstated his removal if he engaged in inappropriate conduct.  Employee was later removed for inappropriate conduct, including inappropriate comments to and about female co-workers.

See opinion at http://www.fedsmith.com/articles/records/file/Melendez%2008-3207-1.pdf

Removal for Credit Card Misuse Upheld

The Fedmanager blog (operated by the law firm of Shaw, Bransford, Veilleux & Roth, P.C. has a summary of Hickman v. USPS, a case in which the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the termination of a Postal Service manager who was guilty not merely of improper use of a credit card, but repeated failure to pay the bill, failure to schedule a supervisor (thus leaving a postal facility unattended), and improper alteration of time records. The appellant's managerial status was an aggravating factor that outweighed the lack of a previous record and other mitigating factors.

Article on Treasury OIG re misuse of transit benefits

Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is charging the Treasury Department's OIG with dragging his feet in firing two senior subordinates put on leave for improperly taking transit fare subsidies and interfering with investigations. http://www.govexec.com/story_page_pf.cfm?articleid=40407&printerfriendlyvers=1

Educ. audit shows employee misuse of credit cards

Dept. of Educ. employees inappropriately used government credit cards to purchase $49,500 worth of goods and services, including meals, items at clothing stores and rental cars, for personal use, according to a review by the department's inspector general.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/05/AR2008070501400_pf.html

Postal employees removal due to misuse of travel card

Federal Circuit upheld removal of two postal employees for (in part) misuse of government travel cards (nonprecedential decisions).

Hickmon v. USPS http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/08-3109.pdf

Powe v. USPS http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/opinions/08-3006.pdf

On-the-Job Blogger Busted at NASA

Federal Computer Week reports on the suspension of a NASA employee for political blogging from his workplace:

A NASA employee has been suspended for soliciting donations and writing politically partisan blog posts and sending e-mail messages while at work, violations of the Hatch Act.

Office of the Special Counsel officials said a Johnson Space Center employee promoted local and state political candidates in 2006 and 2007 through his Internet writings.

The officials also found the employee solicited small campaign donations two times in 2006 through blogs.