Ralph Tillman, VA contract officer, pleads guilty
According to the Justice Department, Ralph Tillman, a 58-year-old contract officer for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in Los Angeles, California, has pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and filing a false federal tax return. He was taking bribes from Richard Scott, the owner of Westside Services LLC (WSS), which for years had a contract to operate parking lots across the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VA GLAHS). Tillman delivered over $11 million in bribes to Scott and pocketed a quarter million bucks for himself.
As part of his duties at the VA, Tillman was responsible for managing contracts with “sharing partners,” such as WSS, which were required to perform services for the VA and share revenues with the agency. In his plea agreement, Tillman admitted that he approached Scott in late 2003 and solicited a bribe to pay for a family matter. One to two years later, Scott began making monthly cash payments to Tillman, with Scott personally delivering the bribes in sealed FedEx envelopes, according to the plea agreement.
In return for the cash bribes, Tillman admitted in the plea agreement that he failed to scrutinize annual statements from WSS that Tillman knew contained inaccurately reported revenues and expenses. Tillman also admitted that he knew Scott was defrauding the VA out of millions of dollars, and that he entered into a contract extension with WSS in 2011 to continue the fraud and bribery scheme.
During an interview with special agents with VA’s Office of Inspector General in September 2014, Tillman denied accepting money or anything of value from Scott. This conduct forms the basis of the false statements charge.
Tillman specifically admitted that he took $286,250 from Scott from 2003 through last year. According to the plea agreement, Tillman continue to receive money from Scott after his retirement and these payments constituted “hush money.”
Tillman failed to report the bribe payments on his federal tax returns, and he agreed to plead guilty to subscribing to a false tax return for the 2014 tax year.
Scott pleaded not guilty and faces a trial in early February, while Tillman pleaded guilty and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of eight years.
In Canada Free Press, Robert L. Rosebrock, the Director of Veterans Revolution and the Old Veterans Guard, says he’s fighting against Tillman for more than a decade and that Tillman deserves a life sentence.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
I hope this scumbag gets life! The VA is crawling with crooks! No wonder nobody cares about the paultry $3200 bucks my pos brother is scamming them out of every month! Maybe he is bribing someone in the VA as well??
Funny how these clowns never seem to have their work “audited.” It’s nice that the VA operates on a trust system.
Has to be more to the story. No way a CO pulls in that type of haul and lets that amount of money slide on a service contract without some financial specialists, contract specialists, COR, and technical monitors finding out. Either the VA has the most incompetent group of acquisition folks on the planet, or the bribes were being spread wider than the report indicates.
A fish rots from the head, they say.
The VA is a prime exhibit of how well the government will take care of you, if you are unfortunate enough to need them to be your caregivers.
IMHO, Ralph Tillman should be required to replay every red cent he took, plus 15%, even if it means he is 90 years old and digging salt in the salt mines.
I prefer how they treat insider traders: 3X the realized gain or avoided loss.
Assuming they’re blowing Tiny, Bubba, and Thor for a nickel a cellblock.
They need to weld his cell door shut once he’s in prison, but given the faith and trust I have in the Justice System, I’d be surprised if he gets more than a few years.
A 15-count indictment was negotiated into a guilty plea on two counts, which combined carry a statutory maximum of eight years. That’s it. Nice that the Monte Halls at DOJ provide the statutory maximum, which tells us nothing. He’s probably looking at one or two years, restitution and probation.
“pleaded guilty”
I don’t think VA employees are allowed to do that. Makes it difficult to reassign them.
Gee, a mere $11 million? Poofter! Bernie Madoffwithyermoney was a whole lot better at fooling people than this guy.
Jonn writes:
Jonn, please change “minimum” to maximum.
Link states:
$11 million is the line at which the OIG seems to notice. So…. If I keep my theivery to <$10m, I should be good. Might have to cut a couple of Lamborghinis out of the ten year plan, but I could make that work.
WTF,,I have been 1/2 deaf since the 70’s because of the engine noise(especially in afterburner) from the F-111’s and haven’t been able to get a dime out of the VA….because of the asinine way they operate in East Orange,NJ and these prics get away for years with how many Bengamins ?
I feel like these dicheads & the phony claims have raped pillaged and burned alot guys like me that did their time and served honorably !! fuck them and fuck them all up, right up the river with max sentences !!!
Just ask that clown Jeff Stacey (Regional Counsel) at VISN 19 what he thinks.
Give him a call on his publicly available number: (303) 914-5810, and ask his opinion.
Turd.
He (Ralph Tillman) was removed from the position of chief of VA Long Beach against his will when SBA/VA received anonymous tip with undeniable evisences that he set aside more than $50 million of construction work without any competetion (meaning single source) to 2 hispanic construction firms who were cousins and uncle. Rather than investigate hom, VA chose to transfer him to W. Los Angeles VA where he got caught this time. This is the examplary case of letting the fox 🦊 to keep the henhouse. I know this as a fact as I worked for contractor who failed to get a single no contract from VA Long Beach no matter how his bid’s competitiveness was.
He was removed from the VA Long Beach against his will when SBA received ananymous tip that he set aside more than $50 million of construction work without cpetetion to 2 hispanic construction firm who were cousins and uncle. VA xhose to transfered him feom chief of contracting at VA Long Beach to W. Los Angeles VA where he got caught this time. This is the case of let the fox