Investigative Reports

A contractor employee received temporary living allowances of $80,857.70 to which he was not entitled. Contrary to what the contract employee claimed on his TLA applications, he did not have a qualifying dependent living at the claimed residence and did not incur substantially all of the expenses for the property. Moreover, he presented a false lease in support of his application.

A TVA contractor’s employee improperly received $146,359 in Temporary Living Allowance payments by claiming a house as his personal residence in which he did not actually live. Rather, he lived in a different dwelling, in a different state, and rented-out the house he claimed as his personal residence during his absence.

John Flores, a former Amtrak reservation sales agent based in Riverside, California, pleaded guilty on September 29, 2021 in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, to theft from programs receiving federal funds. Our investigation found that Flores stole hundreds of eVouchers valued at over $25,000 from customers’ accounts by exploiting the company’s computer system and resold them for his own personal gain. Flores previously resigned from the company on May 2, 2017.Flores will be sentenced at a future date.

Judy Azar, a medical assistant based in Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, on September 24, 2021, to health care fraud, bank fraud, identity theft and tax fraud. Our investigation found that Azar participated in a scheme to defraud health care benefit programs by using false and fraudulent pretenses in connection with the delivery of, and payment for, health care benefits and services.Azar forged a doctor’s signature to fraudulently authorize prescription refills and then sold a portion of the filled prescriptions to interested buyers. The buyers paid Azar with checks made payable to the doctor. Azar then forged the doctor’s signature to endorse the checks, which were then deposited in bank accounts controlled by Azar. As a result of the scheme, Amtrak’s insurance providers were fraudulently charged approximately $13,500.

We did not substantiate allegations that a now-former DOI senior official may have violated Federal ethics laws and the Federal ethics pledge.

We did not substantiate the allegations that a tribal administrator misused tribal funds.

We did not substantiate allegations that the former director of a tribal credit department misappropriated funds from the tribal loan program.

We did not substantiate the allegations that an oil and gas company intentionally reduced its reported mineral sales volumes.

We did not substantiate the allegations that an oil and gas company submitted false mineral production reports to ONRR.

The evidence did not support a finding of retaliation because the letter issued by the senior official was not considered a personnel action.