Investigative Reports

An Amtrak Assistant Conductor in Pontiac, Michigan, was terminated from employment on November 12, 2019, following an administrative hearing for violating company policy. Our investigation found that the employee submitted false documentation and made false and misleading statements regarding his claim that he sustained a work-related injury. Additionally, the employee was not truthful when we interviewed him during this investigation.

We investigated an allegation that Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt, when he was the Deputy Secretary, interfered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS’) scientific process during an assessment of the effects of pesticides on endangered species. We investigated whether Secretary Bernhardt exceeded or abused his authority by influencing consultations between the FWS and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the proposed registration or re-registration of three pesticides, and whether his involvement in the consultations violated his ethics pledge or Federal ethics regulations.We found that Secretary Bernhardt reviewed a draft FWS opinion on the potential biological effects one of the three pesticides could have on endangered species, and he instructed the FWS team developing the opinion to change its method for determining the potential effects. This change has delayed the completion of the opinion, but we found no evidence that Secretary Bernhardt exceeded or abused his authority or that his actions influenced or altered the findings of career FWS scientists. We also found no evidence that Secretary Bernhardt’s involvement in this matter violated his ethics pledge or Federal ethics regulations.On January 7, 2021, this report was corrected to remove an inaccurate footnote. This correction did not affect our findings.

We investigated an allegation that Douglas Domenech, Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), violated his Federal ethics pledge under Executive Order No. 13770 by meeting with an official from his former employer, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), during the required 2-year recusal period following Domenech’s resignation from the TPPF.Although we did not find that Domenech violated his ethics pledge as alleged, we found that he did violate Federal ethics regulations that prohibit Federal employees for 1 year from participating with their former employers in particular matters involving specific parties. Domenech, who began working for the DOI in January 2017 as a special Government employee (SGE), arranged and held two meetings with a TPPF attorney in April 2017 about issues in litigation between DOI bureaus and the TPPF. Domenech had a duty to consider whether his involvement in these meetings would cause a reasonable person to question his impartiality, and his failure to make that determination violated the regulation.Domenech did not violate his ethics pledge, however, because he was an SGE when the meetings took place and thus was not required to sign the pledge at the time. He signed the pledge in September 2017, after he became a permanent DOI employee.

The OIG investigated allegations that a gas marketing company, B. Charles Rogers Gas, Ltd. (BCR), underreported natural gas liquid volumes and overcharged companies producing gas from Federal wells in New Mexico, which resulted in a loss of Federal and tribal mineral royalties.We found that Billy Charles Rogers, Jr., and Wynon Rogers, co-owners of the BCR, and Thomas R. Lutner, III conspired to defraud approximately 30 oil and gas companies. From 2003 through 2015, the BCR purchased gas from companies with Federal, Indian, State, and private leases in the San Juan Basin area of New Mexico and Colorado. Lutner, who worked as a gas supply originator, then purchased aggregate gas packages from the BCR. The Rogerses and Lutner then provided producers false transaction statements in connection with the BCR’s gas purchases that underreported the volume and value of the natural gas liquids that the BCR purchased. Lutner and the Rogerses knew the true volumes and prices for the natural gas liquids, but the BCR provided producers with false monthly statements and paid them far less than what the BCR owed. The Rogerses then shared the fraudulent profits with Lutner.As a result of the BCR’s fraud scheme, the victim companies relied upon the false gas marketing statements issued to them by the BCR and unknowingly failed to properly calculate mineral royalties associated with Federal and tribal leases. The companies thus paid less in royalties than they should have.The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas criminally prosecuted this case, resulting in guilty pleas by all three co-conspirators for violating Title 18 U.S.C. § 371, conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Charles and Wynon Rogers were each sentenced to serve 6 months in prison and 2 years of probation and ordered to pay joint restitution totaling $7,718,876.60. Lutner was sentenced to serve 10 months in prison and 1 year of probation and ordered to pay restitution totaling $16,900,737.66. As a result, over $24.6 million was returned to the oil and gas companies victimized by this criminal conspiracy.Additionally, the three subjects paid approximately $4.375 million to settle a civil false claims act case with the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. The funds received recovered unpaid Federal mineral royalties the subjects owed to the Office of Natural Resources Revenue (ONRR).

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.