Thousands of dollars of kickbacks results in prison time for VA medical center manager

Ralph Johnson received approximately $30,000 in bribes from contractors he awarded contracts to. These contracts were over $443,000, paid for by the Philadelphia VA medical center. Johnson’s agreement with the contractors, Earron Starks and Carlicha Starks, involved their providing him a fraction of what the medical center paid out for these contracts.

The judge factored Ralph Johnson’s military service during the sentencing. However, the assistant U.S. attorney had some doubts about Ralph Johnson’s being present during Gulf War hostilities. She claimed that Gulf War hostilities ended by the time Johnson deployed to the area. When asked when fighting was still occurring by the time his deployment started, Johnson claimed that he earned a Bronze Star.

From Military.com:

At Johnson’s sentencing, his attorney, Hope C. Lefeber, said he was first introduced to the couple by a woman he had been having an extramarital affair with while they were both working at a VA facility in Mechanicsburg, W.Va.

“He was wrong — terribly wrong — and succumbed to his feelings of guilt toward his former paramour … and the opportunity for his own financial gain,” she said. “However, Mr. Johnson believed the contracts would be fulfilled and the work would get done.”

Prosecutors pushed back against Lefeber’s characterization of her client as a decorated veteran who had served his country honorably — first in combat, then at Veterans Affairs — only to tarnish his reputation by succumbing to pressure from his scorned former mistress.

Assistant U.S. Attorney K.T. Newton questioned whether — despite Johnson’s deployment to the Middle East around the time of the Gulf War — he had actually seen combat, as he had told the court.

She said active hostilities had ended by the time Johnson was dispatched as an Army mechanic. Johnson bristled, insisting he had received a Bronze Star for his service.

Still, when Bartle directly asked him whether the Iraqi government was still fighting American troops when his deployment began, Johnson hedged.

“I served in the Gulf War. I love this country,” he said. “They don’t just give medals when you didn’t serve in the war.”

When it came to the bribery scheme, Newton said, Johnson demanded bribes from the Starkses from their very first meeting.

In June 2019, while wearing recording equipment, the couple met with Johnson at his office on the VA hospital’s campus in West Philadelphia and slipped him a binder filled with $5,000 they owed him from a contract he had previously sent their way.

He walked them out to the parking lot afterward and reminded them that their next kickback was due at the start of the following month — before the July Fourth weekend.

“That’s going to be a long weekend … and I like to enjoy the weekend,” Johnson told them, according to a transcript of that recording included in government court filings. “I like to work hard, but I sure like to play hard, too.”

Military.com has additional information.

Category: Veteran Health Care, Veterans in the news