VBA employee allowed to resign before he could face discipline
Richard Moore, an employee of the Veterans Benefit Agency, was found to have misused Agency funds, more than a hundred thousand dollars on unauthorized travel, according to The Tennessean. When he was busted by an IG investigation, he was allowed to resign before was disciplined;
The employee, Richard Moore, resigned July 25, four months after the inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs found he had spent more than $109,000 on travel “without proper authorization or any supervisory oversight,” and used his government computer for sexually explicit video communications to friends.
Moore was put on paid administrative leave in March, a few days after the report was released. Investigators found he had been given favorable performance reviews and a promotion.
VA officials told the House Committee on Veterans Affairs via email that administrative actions against Moore were no longer pending because of the resignation.
By the way, according to MCPO Ret. In TN who sent us the link, Moore was also a retired Army Master Sergeant, Intelligence Corps for 22 years. I’m sure he turned down a few first sergeant slots in his time, too. I’m sure he’ll correct me if I’m wrong.
Category: Politics
Not sure what is preventing any criminal action from being taken against him… Anyone can resign before their employer has an oppurtunity to fire their ass, but he still comitted crimes.
Of the 109,000 they determind 31 grand or so was from travel not considered mission essential.
The rest of it sounds about par for the course with the VA. The thing is, this is the type of crap that goes on in every single federal agency. We only hear about the VA so much because let’s face it, Veterans are the only ones trying to hold an agency to be accountable for itself.
I am guaranteeing, if you at any other agency as closely as the VA is scrutinized, you will find this and so much more happening in all of them.
Sergeant Major in Army Intelligence…
Hmmmm….
VA probably hoped allowing this crook to resign might reduce more negative exposure. WRONG!
Another fuckin’ tool…
Smirking Wolf has it. VBA saving face and giving him a walk on this crap.
Not to defend the VA here – but they might not have had much choice but to let the guy go.
Proving fraud in such cases can be pretty difficult, particularly if he paid back the “not mission essential” part of the travel. You have to prove intent, and here that might be damned difficult. Moreover, the guy apparently also had some “top cover” that’s also now no longer with the agency and may not cooperate in an investigation.
It’s also quite difficult to prevent someone from voluntarily resigning a civilian job. Unlike the military, you can’t really keep a civilian from quitting their job.
That said, I do hope they’d begun termination proceedings against him before he resigned. That way, he’ll be required to disclose the fact that he resigned after being told he might be fired on any future job application.
What does this guy’s current employment status have to do with criminal charges being filed? He either did or did not violate a law, or multiple laws. Only a court should have the authority to enter into an “agreement” that termination would have anything to do with punishment for the crimes committed.
The commission of crimes is not just a personnel issue. Since when does an HR department have law enforcement authority?
OWB: agreed. But here, it’s not even clear that any prosecutable crime was committed.
Performing travel that was “unauthorized” is not necessarily a violation of law. If the travel was later found to be necessary, reimbursement is proper – and no fraud would have occurred. In this case, it appears that most (around $78k of $109k) was later determined to be valid.
Even proving attempted fraud for the “non-mission-essential” and unauthorized travel could be damned difficult. IMO if the individual agreed to reimburse Uncle Sam for payment for the parts of his travel deemed to be “not mission essential”, proving an attempt to defraud would be virtually impossible. The individual could merely claim that he/she thought they were performing mission essential work but was mistaken. Absent other evidence, proving attempted fraud then becomes extremely difficult if not impossible.
Further, there’s no crime per se due to the fact that the travel was not authorized a priori. For civilian government employees, violations of regulation (like traveling without proper authority) are not inherently criminal acts. Absent an accompanying criminal violation, there’s generally no equivalent of the UCMJ Article 92 under which to prosecute the individual (for “Violation of Lawful Order or Regulation”.) What typically happens is that the individual is disciplined – up to and including being fired.
Ditto the misuse of government equipment to send “sexually explicit” materials. Provided they weren’t criminally obscene, they’d also be a policy/regulatory violation. Might get a civilian fired, but unless it’s child pr0n or other legally obscene material it’s not going to result in a prosecution.
Bottom line: I think the guy was trying to pull a fast one, and was dirty. I also think he wasn’t acting alone. But without more evidence, proving that he was criminally dirty would IMO be extremely difficult.
Willie Clark, John Skelly, etc.
The list goes on and on of these crooks and clowns working in the VBA.
They ALL need to go.
The IG should be referring this case to the US Attorney for that region. They have prosecuted for amounts less than 30K…
This guy is a dirt bag and should be prosecuted! Don’t worry though, the poor fella won’t lose any of his military retirement. Maybe they’ll fine him put him in prison for a while, followed by supervised probation – he deserves what he gets, hopefully it’s quick and painful!