Investigative Reports

A Boilermaker/Welder, based in Beech Grove, Indiana, violated Amtrak policies by engaging in outside employment to work for his own companies while on sick leave. We also confirmed that he was conducting and engaging in work for his own companies on days that he requested leave for “union business.” Finally, our investigation found that he did not seek or request written approval from Amtrak to engage in outside employment which, according to the website for his personal business, advertises services for the railroad industry and, as a result, violated the company’s Conflict of Interest Policy. The employee was terminated from his employment on September 15, 2020.

OIG Investigations Newsletter Volume XXIX: June 1 - July 31, 2020

The OIG investigated an allegation that a former Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee accessed child pornography with a U.S. Government computer.We found no evidence that the employee accessed child pornography. We evaluated the employee’s network traffic, which showed their computer accessed sites hosting suspected child pornography; however, we were not able to determine if the employee accessed the areas of the websites that hosted the suspected child pornography. The employee took certain actions with respect to the hard drive, so we were unable to recover any images or other evidence from the computer. The employee admitted to viewing adult pornography on their Government computer while on duty but denied viewing child pornography.The employee resigned during our investigation after receiving a notice of proposed removal. The U.S. Attorney declined prosecution of this matter.

Babar Iqbal, a doctor from Los Angeles, California, and owner of Riverside Regional Surgery Center, pleaded guilty on June 10, 2020, in Superior Court of California, Riverside to several charges related to health care insurance fraud. As part of the scheme, Iqbal targeted patients whose insurance paid higher reimbursement amounts to providers who were considered out of network and performed services that were medically unnecessary. Iqbal also conspired with marketers to obtain fraudulent insurance policies for individuals who did not have health insurance. The marketers then referred these individuals to Iqbal at the Riverside Regional Surgery Center. In return, the marketers received a commission based on the reimbursement amount the insurance companies paid Iqbal. The Amtrak health insurance plan was fraudulently billed approximately $1,653,210 as a result of the scheme. Iqbal will be sentenced at a future date.

Joseph Kieffer, a marketer from Los Angeles, California, pleaded guilty on July 20, 2020, in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, to conspiracy to pay illegal renumerations related to a health care fraud scheme. Kieffer paid kickbacks to patients and to marketers for patient referrals for medically unnecessary compounded drugs. As part of the scheme, Fusion RX Compounding Pharmacy then billed health care providers for the compounded drugs at rates much higher than average medications. The owner of Fusion Rx Compounding Pharmacy was also charged for his role in the scheme. The Amtrak health insurance plan was fraudulently billed approximately $17,000 as a result of the scheme. Criminal judicial proceedings are pending.

Tuesday, September 1, 2020We investigated allegations that a building management employee working in the Office of the Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs misused their official position and engaged in unethical or illegal behavior.We found that the building management employee misused their Government charge card, participated in bid rigging, took a Government laptop for personal use, and failed to properly follow the DOI parking pass process policy, in violation of U.S. Department of the Interior policy and Federal regulations.The U.S. Department of Justice declined prosecution. The building management employee was removed from Federal service. We provided this final report to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs.

Babar Iqbal, a California-based doctor and owner of Riverside Regional Surgery Center, was sentenced in the Superior Court of California, County of Riverside, on August 31, 2020, to 27 months in prison and was ordered to pay restitution of $2,799,550 for health care insurance fraud. Iqbal targeted patients whose insurance paid higher reimbursement amounts to providers who were considered out of network, and he performed services that were medically unnecessary. Iqbal also conspired with marketers to obtain fraudulent insurance policies for individuals who did not have health insurance. The marketers then referred these individuals to Iqbal at the Riverside Regional Surgery Center. In return, the marketers received a commission based on the reimbursement amount the insurance companies paid Iqbal. Amtrak’s health insurance plan was fraudulently billed approximately $1,653,210 as a result of the scheme. Iqbal previously pleaded guilty to several charges related to health care insurance fraud in June 2020.

The VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated allegations that the chief of staff at a VA medical center engaged in a conflict of interest by performing work for a private company that provides education services and misused his official position by recruiting VA physicians to work for that same company in 2017 and 2018. The OIG did not substantiate either alleged violation. The OIG did, however, identify a related misuse of government resources. After the OIG investigation began, the chief of staff sought advice from the VA Office of General Counsel regarding whether the work for the company presented a conflict of interest. The chief of staff was advised that there was no conflict of interest. In seeking this advice, the chief of staff disclosed that he had previously asked two VA physicians to do work for the company. The OGC ethics team advised that the VA physicians could continue working for the company; however, the chief of staff should not participate in any employment arrangements between the VA physicians and the company. The chief of staff confirmed that he would follow the advice. The OIG identified email threads exchanged between the chief of staff and the VA physicians in support of the outside business activities associated with the education company. When presented with these emails, the chief of staff apologized and expressed surprise. The two VA physicians indicated they believed (incorrectly) that the use of VA resources to conduct activities related to the company was permissible if it was done outside working hours. The OIG makes no recommendations. However, nothing in this report shall prevent the medical center director from taking appropriate administrative action with respect to the improper use of VA email resources by the chief of staff and the physicians.

The OIG investigated allegations that a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) manager accepted gifts from prohibited sources, awarded contracts to personal friends, directed improper credit card purchases, and violated travel regulations.We did not find evidence that the manager’s actions violated ethics, procurement, or travel regulations as alleged.

We investigated whether career U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) staff were directed to delay releasing documents responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that was being litigated in U.S. district court, and whether withholding these documents conflicted with the court’s order to the DOI to review a certain number of potentially responsive pages every month.We found that after David Bernhardt’s nomination for Interior Secretary was announced on February 4, 2019, then Counselor to the Secretary Hubbel Relat directed career DOI staff to temporarily withhold documents related to Bernhardt from a release of FOIA documents scheduled to occur under the court order. As a result, 253 pages of information were not included in the scheduled release, but most of those pages were released later in 2019. Accordingly, we have determined that this matter does not warrant further investigation and that the court is the proper venue to determine whether the DOI met its obligations under the court order.

We investigated allegations that two National Park Service (NPS) managers violated contracting regulations and procedures by using the Standard Form 182 (SF-182), which is meant to fund standardized training, to pay a company for extended work on an internal NPS training website. We also investigated allegations that NPS employees improperly hired NPS retirees and then re-issued or re-activated their Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards.We found that the two NPS managers, who oversaw aspects of NPS training programs, improperly used the SF-182 to pay a company $1,041,117 to develop and maintain an internal training website, circumventing contracting regulations. The two NPS managers have since left the agency.We also found that one of the managers retained his PIV card after retiring and had another employee re-enable the card after he left Federal service, in violation of departmental policy. We also discovered a separate instance in which an NPS retiree performed fiscal and budget-related services for an NPS training center without a contract. The NPS retiree received a new PIV card under the guise of an unrelated contract.

The OIG investigated an allegation that an employee with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (AS-IA) may have improperly used entities that he owned or had a financial interest in to perform work at the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI).We found that the employee was involved in choosing two unregistered entities with whom he or other DOI staff had personal relationships and repeatedly paid them with a charge card, rather than establish a contract as required. The employee violated DOI policy and Federal regulations by misusing his Government charge card; asking for and receiving cash from the entities while they performed work for the DOI; issuing numerous payments to the entities with no supporting documentation; and submitting altered invoices during an internal charge card review as support for payments he made. We also found the employee personally received funds from the DOI for a private group he operated, and he did not file a financial disclosure as required by his position.The U.S. Department of Justice declined prosecution and the employee left Federal service.