Investigative Reports

An Amtrak customer service representative based in West Palm Beach, Florida, signed a civil settlement agreement on December 6, 2024, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida. The employee agreed to pay $32,481 in restitution and a penalty of $1,500 related to the fraudulent receipt of a $42,900 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). Our investigation found that the employee applied for an EIDL loan for economic losses resulting from the pandemic related to self-employment or businesses he allegedly owned. We found that the employee submitted an application containing false statements and information to qualify for the loan. As a result, the employee received an EIDL loan in the amount of $42,900 to which he was not entitled.

The AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) investigated allegations that the City of Oakland, Office on Aging (City of Oakland) paid Senior Companion Program (SCP) and Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) volunteers full stipends when volunteers either did not serve or document the hours claimed following the end of AmeriCorps’ authorization for grantees to pay volunteers a temporary allowance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

An Amtrak carman journeyman based in Sanford, Florida, resigned from his position on November 22, 2024, prior to the completion of his administrative hearing. Our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by misusing military leave on 38 different occasions. Our investigation found that the former employee submitted little or no documentation to support his use of military leave, and we identified only four instances when he did provide documentation.

Akheem Currie, a former Amtrak passenger engineer who worked aboard Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) trains, was sentenced for second degree assault and fourth degree sex offense in Maryland Circuit Court for Baltimore City on November 21, 2024. On June 27, 2024, a jury for the Circuit Court found Currie guilty of Assault in the Second Degree and Sex Offense in the Fourth Degree. Currie allowed a female passenger onto a MARC train without a ticket and subsequently assaulted her by inappropriately touching and kissing her. Currie received a five-year sentence (suspended, all but time served), and was placed on three years of probation. Additionally, he must submit to a mental health evaluation and treatment and register as a sex offender for 15 years. Currie was terminated October 31, 2024, after his administrative hearing at the company and is not eligible for rehire.

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), Office of the Inspector General (OIG), completed an investigation into the misuse of an official GPO vehicle.

Eric Cardenas of Orlando, Florida, pleaded guilty on November 19, 2024, in the Circuit Court of Orange County, State of Florida, to credit card fraud related charges. The same day, Cardenas was sentenced to four days of incarceration and was assessed a fine of $473. Our investigation found that Cardenas and a codefendant were part of a sophisticated credit card fraud ring operating throughout central Florida. They used fraudulently obtained credit cards, to include an Amtrak Wright Express Corporation (WEX) card, to purchase fuel.

Judicial proceedings for the codefendant in this investigation are pending.

The AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) investigated allegations that surfaced during an AmeriCorps OIG audit regarding the submittal of false documents and unallowable living allowances to non-AmeriCorps members (members) by AmeriCorps State and National subgrantee, Kuumba Academy, located in Wilmington, DE.

Andre Wilburn, a resident of New York, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, on November 14, 2024, to two years of imprisonment, five years of probation, and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $468,037 for his participation in an Amtrak ticket fraud scheme. Wilburn and his co-conspirators used stolen credit card information to make unauthorized purchases of Amtrak tickets and then canceled or exchanged those tickets for eVouchers. Subsequently, they sold the fraudulently obtained eVouchers on the internet. Wilburn pleaded guilty on October 24, 2019, to access device fraud and aggravated identity theft for his involvement in the eVoucher scheme.

In addition, Wilburn was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment and five years of probation on November 14, 2024, for charges of Coercion and Enticement of a minor. Amtrak OIG agents discovered child pornography on Wilburn’s computer during the investigation, including images that showed Wilburn conducting sexual acts on a child. Wilburn pleaded guilty to one count of the charge on August 15, 2022.

We concluded that the officers’ pursuit was consistent with USPP policies and that, in all but one instance, the officers’ actions during the pursuit did not violate USPP policies.

Maurice Driver, a former Amtrak lead service attendant based in Washington, D.C., was sentenced in U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, on November 6, 2024, for making false statements. He was sentenced to time served and a criminal fine of $200.
 

According to court documents, Driver was working as a Lead Service Attendant in the café car on an Amtrak train, which departed from Washington, D.C., in the afternoon of January 3, 2024, and ended in Chicago, Illinois, on the morning of January 4, 2024.
While working on that train, Driver met a passenger, spoke, and texted with the passenger, and allowed the passenger to use a vacant sleeper car on the train. On January 4, 2024, in Chicago, that passenger reported to Amtrak Police that Driver sexually assaulted her in a sleeper car on the train. Amtrak OIG then initiated an investigation of the sexual assault allegations. During an interview with an Amtrak OIG Special Agent, Driver made multiple false and misleading statements about his communications and contacts with the passenger, denying that he gave the passenger his personal phone number, texted with the passenger, and that he showed the passenger to a sleeper car. On August 8, 2024, Driver pleaded guilty to lying to a federal agent, and he was terminated from the company on October 31, 2024. He is not eligible for rehire.

The AmeriCorps Office of Inspector General (AmeriCorps OIG) conducted an investigation that found evidence that the Axiom Education and Training Center (AETC) in Machias, ME, included false information in its AmeriCorps grant application to Serve Maine, and that AETC mismanaged its AmeriCorps Digital Inclusion Initiative program.