Investigative Reports

Michael Hollingsworth, a resident of New York, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, on November 19, 2019, for accepting a gratuity in return for his involvement in falsifying an Amtrak pre-employment drug test. According to the indictment, Hollingsworth worked as a drug test sample collector. He received cash from an Amtrak job applicant to submit a fraudulent sample to ensure the applicant passed Amtrak’s drug screening requirement. Hollingsworth will be sentenced at a later date.

The OIG investigated an allegation that a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee may have accessed and viewed child pornography on a Government computer on multiple occasions.We found that the employee accessed and viewed adult pornography on the Government computer while inside a Government office but found no evidence the employee viewed child pornography. The employee admitted viewing adult pornography on multiple occasions but denied any involvement with child pornography. Accessing and viewing pornography on a Government computer violates DOI policy; the employee said he knew that DOI policy prohibited his actions.The employee retired during our investigation.

Alpha Painting & Construction Company, Inc., an industrial painting and construction company based in Baltimore, was sentenced November 14, 2019, in United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to five-years’ probation, a $500,000 fine, and forfeiture of $10.9 million. Alpha was previously found guilty of conspiracy, wire fraud, and false statements related to a multimillion-dollar fraud scheme.The scheme involved two Pennsylvania Department of Transportation contracts to rehabilitate bridges in the Philadelphia area including the 30th Street Station Bridge and Girard Point Bridge. The terms of the contracts required Alpha to use a qualified Disadvantaged Business Enterprise to provide supplies for the projects. Instead, Alpha used a now defunct DBE as a pass-through to create the appearance that DBE program requirements had been met. In exchange for participating in the scheme, the DBE received a percentage of funds garnered from falsified invoices it submitted, according to court documents. In addition, Alpha falsified invoices from out of state projects including an Amtrak bridge project to use as DBE credits.Agents from Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General, along with the U.S. Department of Transportation OIG, the U.S. Department of Labor OIG, and the FBI investigated the case.

Andre Wilburn, a resident of New York, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, on October 24, 2019, to access device fraud and aggravated identity theft for his involvement in an Amtrak eVoucher scheme. Wilburn and his co-conspirators used stolen credit card information to make unauthorized purchases of Amtrak tickets and then cancelled or exchanged those tickets for eVouchers. Subsequently, they sold the fraudulently obtained eVouchers on the internet. Wilburn’s sentencing is pending.

An Amtrak supervisor resigned on November 14, 2019, for violating company policy by stealing company property and misusing his own and other employees’ company time for personal tasks. The case has been referred to the U.S. Department of Justice, and criminal proceedings are pending.

The OIG investigated allegations that Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribal Police Officer Willard White stole $40,000 from the Tribe. White allegedly obtained the funds under the pretense of creating a youth diversion program but spent the money on personal purchases and did not create the program.We found the Tribe gave White $40,000 to create a youth diversion program. White, however, spent the entire amount on personal purchases, none of which supported the establishment of the proposed program. In addition, White did not report the $40,000 as income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).White pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Montana to one count of18 U.S.C. § 1343, Wire Fraud, and one count of 26 U.S.C. § 7201, Income Tax Evasion. On October 9, 2019, White was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 2 years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution to the Fort Peck Tribe, $18,050 in restitution to the IRS, and a $200 special assessment.

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) official awarded or manipulated a grant to a friend in return for a favor. It was further alleged that the official benefited from a different grant that the FWS awarded to a State agency and that he may have used inside knowledge to purchase and enroll land in a Government program so he could benefit financially.We found no evidence that the FWS official awarded or manipulated any grants that benefitted himself or others. We also found no evidence that the FWS official violated any laws or rules by purchasing land and enrolling the land into a Government program.

DOL OIG Investigations Newsletter Vol. XXIV August 1 - September 30, 2019