Investigative Reports

John Mckoy previously pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, on June 14, 2019, to multiple health care fraud charges related to a scheme to defraud Amtrak’s health care plan. McKoy was the owner and operator of several neighborhood health carefacilities, including Mt. Pleasant Medical Management, Inc. and Harris Medical Management, Inc. Between November 2004 and October 2007, McKoy submitted, and caused to be submitted, hundreds of false and fraudulent claims to United Health Care Corporation and was paid approximately $291,000 for services purportedly rendered to predominately Amtrak patients who were never seen or treated for those services. On July 8, 2020, McKoy was sentenced to six months imprisonment, three years’ supervised probation, and ordered to pay restitution to Amtrak in the amount of $291,255.In addition to Amtrak OIG, this joint investigation was conducted with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Department of Labor OIG, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

OIG reviewed the proposed Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection rule to determine whether FSIS’ worker safety analysis complied with applicable rulemaking requirements.

Five individuals who worked for Empire Care Dental at various California locations, including one dentist, one dental hygienist, and three office managers pleaded guilty to Health Insurance Fraud and to Practicing Dentistry Without a License. Our investigation disclosed that representatives of Empire Care Dental offered $50 - $100 payments to Amtrak employees if they used their services. In addition, our investigation found that Empire Care Dental submitted false claims for procedures more expensive than the ones performed and that the dentist practiced dentistry without a license. The five individuals were sentenced to 2-3 months in prison and ordered to pay joint restitution in the amount of $62,836.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated allegations that the VA San Diego Healthcare System staff manipulated the time cards for seven fee-basis medical providers in order to pay these individuals on a salary or wage basis rather than a per-procedure basis. In addition, the allegations contended that a fee-basis care provider was told he would be converted to a full-time employee after working full time as a fee-basis provider for one year. The OIG substantiated that certain fee-basis care providers at the VA San Diego Healthcare System were being paid for their time improperly, rather than on a per-procedure basis as required. The OIG did not substantiate that a fee-basis professional had been promised conversion to full-time status. The OIG did not make any recommendations because the medical center took corrective action, including disciplinary action with respect to the supervisor who was accountable for this conduct.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) Administrative Investigations Division investigated alleged misconduct by two employees of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System in California. A complainant alleged that a supervisory health system specialist misused his/her public office for private gain when, as a part of the supervisor’s VA job responsibilities, he/she improperly participated in matters related to a contract maintained by the healthcare system with a vendor whose vice president was the supervisor’s significant other (non-spouse) and roommate. During the course of the investigation, the supervisor voluntarily resigned from VA, and as a result the OIG removed this allegation from the scope of the investigation. The complainant also alleged that a former medical center director failed to make proper rental payments while residing in the healthcare system’s quarters. Although the OIG determined the director underpaid VA a net amount of $158 for housing during the three years he resided on VA quarters, the OIG determined the cause was a coding error and identified no evidence that the error resulted from any misconduct on the part of the director. Because the error was unintended and corrective action has already been taken by the healthcare system, the OIG made no recommendations.

Following an investigation conducted in response to allegations made to the VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) hotline, the Office of Special Reviews substantiated that an Office of General Counsel (OGC) attorney was using VA time and resources to work on matters related to his outside law practice. Moreover, the OIG determined that the attorney represented private clients in U.S. bankruptcy court in cases where the clients owed money to the federal government. This conduct implicated criminal conflict of interest laws, which prohibit federal government employees from representing third parties in cases where the United States is a party or has a direct and substantial interest. The review team discovered that VA’s OGC received complaints about the attorney using VA time and resources to engage in his outside law practice as early as 2012. The OIG found that OGC's failure to appropriately supervise or meaningfully investigate the attorney's misconduct allowed it to continue. It was not until the OIG alerted OGC to this review’s preliminary findings that the OGC investigated the attorney, which ultimately led to his removal from federal employment in March 2020. The OIG's seven recommendations to the Acting VA General Counsel addressed actions to be considered in light of the attorney's misconduct and OGC officials' prior failures to take prompt appropriate action. These included revision to the OGC's relevant guidance and how OGC identifies and advises its employees who have outside employment. OGC was also asked to consider whether it should implement a supplemental regulation requiring some employees to disclose and obtain prior approval before engaging in outside employment. VA’s OGC concurred with all recommendations.

We investigated allegations that a senior U.S. Park Police (USPP) official asked the United States Attorney’s Office to dismiss criminal citations (tickets) issued to Presidio Trust employees and contractors at the request of Presidio Trust officials.We found that a Presidio Trust official asked a senior USPP official to request the dismissal of several tickets stemming from two separate incidents that occurred at the Presidio and that the senior USPP official’s decisions to request the dismissals were, in part, influenced by these requests. In addition, while we found that the senior USPP official had the discretion to request that the tickets be dismissed and that there was no USPP General Order or U.S. Department of the Interior policy about the process or authority for dismissing tickets, the senior USPP official appeared to deviate from past USPP practices at the Presidio when requesting the dismissals.We provided our report to the Deputy Director, Exercising the Authority of the Director of the National Park Service, for any action deemed appropriate.

A Technician in Los Angeles was terminated from employment on May 20, 2020, and a Customer Service Supervisor and an Operations Supervisor from Los Angeles were terminated from employment on June 23, 2020, following their administrative hearings. Our investigation found that the employees violated company policy by allowing a doctor to fraudulently bill the company’s group health plan on their behalf. The employees accepted monetary gifts from the doctor, while allowing her to fraudulently bill the company’s group health plan.

A former Machinist based in Albany-Rensselaer, New York, violated company policies by viewing pornographic videos during work hours on his company-owned computer. The videos were stored and accessed on a USB device. He admitted to viewing the videos and resigned on June 18, 2020, following his interview by Office of Inspector General special agents. The former employee is not eligible for rehire.

A Coach Cleaner in New Orleans, Louisiana, was terminated from employment on June 18, 2020, following an administrative hearing for violating company policy. Our investigation found that the employee failed to report multiple arrests and criminal convictions for drug and weapons related charges during his tenure with the company. Specifically, we found that he failed to disclose his 2017 and 2019 arrests and their subsequent convictions to the company.

A supervisor and foreman in Chicago, Illinois, were terminated from employment on June 11, 2020 and issued a written reprimand on June 18, 2020, respectively, for violating company policies. Specifically, our investigation found that the supervisor violated company policies by driving a company-owned vehicle for personal use and operated the vehicle in excess of 90 mph while using a cellular telephone without a hands-free device. In addition, the supervisor directed the foreman to use another company-owned vehicle to tow the supervisor’s personally owned vehicle.

A Trackman in Jackson, Michigan, was terminated from employment on June 15, 2020, following an administrative hearing for violating company policy. Our investigation found that the employee submitted false information on the background questionnaire of his employment application, which was inconsistent with police investigative findings related to a previous felony criminal conviction. Specifically, the employee maintained that he was never in possession of a controlled substance, however, the court records signed by the employee confirmed that he pleaded guilty to a charge of intent to deliver controlled substances. In addition, the employee was dishonest with our agents during his interview.

A contractor providing information technology security services for Amtrak violated company policies by wrongfully uploading sensitive and proprietary Amtrak data to his personal Google cloud storage and a personally owned USB flash drive without company knowledge or approval. Our agents were able to identify and remove the company’s data from his cloud storage and flash drive. In addition, the company has remediated certain vulnerabilities and continues to take steps to address security weaknesses identified as part of our investigation.

We investigated an allegation that a National Park Service (NPS) employee assisted inmates from a prison work detail to smuggle contraband into a Federal penitentiary.We determined that during the prison work detail at a national park, inmates—whose criminal histories included firearms- and drug-related convictions—were found with contraband after they had been left working unsupervised in the park’s campground for approximately 2 hours.We found insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that the employee assisted the inmates who smuggled contraband into the penitentiary. The employee has since left the NPS.We also investigated whether the employee followed NPS and departmental procedures for the use of prison work details, and if the NPS had established policies and procedures for the supervision of inmates working at the national park. We presented those findings and recommendations on the lack of departmental policies and procedures in a separate management advisory (Management Advisory No. OI-GA-18-0898-I, The National Park Service Needs Policies or Procedures Covering Prison Work Details in National Parks). As a result of the management advisory we issued, all prison work details at national parks have stopped pending further consideration.We provided this report to the Deputy Director, Exercising the Authority of Director for the NPS, for any action deemed appropriate.

On May 4, 2020, the OIG was informed that First-Class Mail, including but not limited to political mail and mail-in ballots, was misdelivered and left near cluster boxes at numerous apartment buildings in Paterson, NJ, on May 1, 2020. The investigation revealed through video surveillance, interviews and USPS database searches that on May 1, 2020, mail was improperly delivered to numerous apartment buildings. On May 19, 2020, a Notice of Removal (NOR) was issued. pursuant to the OIG investigation with the charge of Incomplete Disposition of Mail. No further investigative findings anticipated. This case is closed.

This investigation addressed an allegation that a contract employee and his employer submitted mileage reimbursement expenses in the amount of $23,431.82 that were not allowed under their contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These travel expenses were submitted for the employee’s travel to and from TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Site between February 2017 and April 2019. The evidence substantiated that these expenses were not reimbursable under the contract.The OIG recommends that (1) TVA re-educate the contractor on when mileage reimbursement is permitted under the contract, and (2) resolve the misinterpretation of the contract terminology pertaining to mileage reimbursement between the Nuclear Projects and Supply Chain groups.

During a recent OIG investigation, we found that the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) has an internal policy that permits authorized senior staff to obtain access to employee emails to ensure “efficient and proper operation of the workplace,” or to search for “suspected misconduct.” We found, however, that the NIGC has no systems, processes, or procedures in place to approve, track, or account for internal email queries of employees’ emails.While we found no U.S. Department of the Interior policy that prohibited such queries, we are concerned about the negative effect this practice could have on employees making protected disclosures. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) issued a memorandum to all executive departments and agencies in February 2018 urging that policies and practices for monitoring employee communications “do not interfere with or chill employees from lawfully disclosing wrongdoing.”To avoid a chilling effect on NIGC employees seeking to engage in protected whistleblowing activity and to ensure adequate oversight of its access to individual Government email accounts, we made one recommendation that the NIGC establish formal policies and procedures consistent with the OSC’s guidance that also provide a way for the NIGC to track and retain all requests and productions.We issued this management advisory to the NIGC Chairman.

This investigation addressed an allegation that a contract employee and his employer submitted mileage reimbursement expenses in the amount of $34,173.15 that were not allowed under their contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). These travel expenses were submitted for the employee’s travel to and from TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Site between August 2016 and June 2019. The evidence substantiates that these expenses were not reimbursable under the contract.The OIG recommends that (1) TVA re-educate the contractor on when mileage reimbursement is permitted under the contract, and (2) resolve the misinterpretation of the contract terminology pertaining to mileage reimbursement between TVA’s Nuclear Projects and Supply Chain groups.