Investigative Reports

An Amtrak customer service representative based in Oakland, California, resigned from her position on October 10, 2024, prior to her administrative hearing. Our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by allowing individuals who were not entitled to pass travel privileges to travel on her pass. During her interview, the former employee admitted to her actions.

William Leonard and Kevin Leonard, both California residents, pleaded guilty on May 15, 2024, in U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, to conspiracy and health care fraud charges. William and Kevin Leonard were patient brokers who unlawfully brokered patients to clinical treatment facilities owned and operated by Paragon Recovery LLC. In exchange, William and Kevin Leonard received kickbacks payments. The scheme resulted in the fraudulent billing of insurance companies for services that were not performed.Previously, Stephen Reeder, an Ohio resident, pleaded guilty on January 22, 2024, to Conspiracy related to a health care fraud scheme. Reeder was the program director at Paragon Recovery, which operated a clinical treatment facility in California. Our investigation found that Reeder and others conspired to solicit, offer, and receive illegal remunerations for referrals to clinical treatment facilities. Specifically, at the direction of the owners of Paragon Recovery, Reeder caused payment to be made to William and Kevin Leonard for patients they referred to the facility. Amtrak’s insurance providers were billed approximately $1,152,000 over the course of the scheme.

An Amtrak engineer based in Raleigh, North Carolina, received a written reprimand and a 40-day suspension without pay on October 7, 2024. Our investigation found that the employee violated company policies by using the company’s trademarked logo and a picture of one of its locomotives on the website for his personal business.

We found that a former DOI Deputy Secretary failed to monitor his investments or recuse himself from a matter in which he held financial interests.

The AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) received allegations that a grantee falsely reported elevated numbers of active volunteers in its Senior Companion Program (SCP) and failed to produce required match funds. The investigation found insufficient evidence to support the allegations. However, during a self-inspection of its fiscal records during this investigation, the grantee discovered $8,434.69 was inappropriately charged to its grant between July 2020 through March 2021 and reported its findings to AmeriCorps OIG.

The AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) investigated allegations that The New Teacher Project (TNTP), New York, NY, improperly exited five AmeriCorps members (members) with 1700 hours and thus certified full time education awards for the members, despite previous denials from AmeriCorps State and National to TNTP’s request to retroactively backdate the members’ enrollment in the MyAmeriCorps Portal.

Following the receipt of a complaint that an AmeriCorps member was simultaneously enrolled in two AmeriCorps programs at different grantees without the grantees’ knowledge, AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) initiated a proactive review of members with multiple service terms during the same timeframe.

An initial query of data covering 2016 to 2023 held in AmeriCorps systems identified 14 members with overlapping service terms. A more detailed review of those 14 members found three of the members had service terms who appeared to be simultaneously enrolled in two full-time programs for some period of time.

The AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) investigated allegations that AmeriCorps Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) members at Heal the City Free Clinic (HTC), located in Amarillo, TX, were engaging in prohibited activities. HTC was a VISTA service site for the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics, also known as the Texas Association of Charitable Clinics (TXACC).

A junior tamper was terminated following a disciplinary hearing on September 8, 2023. The former employee violated company policy when he transported a firearm in his personal vehicle, without authorization, on company property during a shift spanning March 1 and March 2, 2023

Seventeen Amtrak employees based at New York Penn Station or the NW Base in New Jersey, consisting of two Gang Foremen, four linemen, three truck drivers, six 3rd Rail welders, one trackman, and one electronic technician resigned in connection with an OIG investigation of alleged healthcare fraud. Five of those who resigned were among 10 current and former employees charged by indictment June 20, 2024, with conspiracy to commit health care fraud.The resignations occurred between July 15 and September 12, 2024. Our investigation found that the employees participated in an $11 million health care fraud scheme beginning in 2019 and continuing to June 2022 involving health care providers and others who recruited Amtrak employees—primarily from New Jersey and New York—to participate in the scheme. The employees were given cash payments in exchange for allowing the health care providers to use their patient and insurance information to submit fraudulent claims to Amtrak’s health care plan for services that they never provided or that were medically unnecessary.