Julia Davis

Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General recently released the second part of its semiannual report to Congress . In response to OIG’s investigations, the DHS declined to prosecute 111 cases, accepted 56 investigations for prosecution and achieved 56 convictions. OIG audits resulted in questioned costs of $59,424,677, of which $2,679,489 did not have supporting documentation. As a result of disallowed costs, the DHS recovered or de-obligated $32,743,847. OIG issued 14 reports, identifying $898,468,917 in funds that could be put to better use by the DHS. OIG determined that the Department of Homeland Security cannot ensure it has sufficient personal protective equipment and antiviral medical countermeasures for a pandemic response. Previous OIG report , “DHS Has Not Effectively Managed Pandemic Personal Protective Equipment and Antiviral Medical Countermeasures,” found that the Department of Homeland Security is “ill-prepared for pandemic response.” The OIG report ...

Three San Mateo County, California Sheriff's Department officers, Michael Del Carlo, George Ismael and Juan Lopez, have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling drugs, cellphones and other contraband to a gang member inside a detention facility. Lopez is a deputy, Del Carlo and Ismael are correctional officers at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City. All of them have been charged with bringing an unauthorized communication device into the jail and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Lopez has been a sheriff’s deputy in San Mateo County for 26 years. Earlier this year, he challenged his boss, Greg Munks, running for the post of Sheriff . Del Carlo has worked for the county for 19 years and Ismael has 15 years of experience as a law enforcement officer. "The Sheriff's Office has hundreds of people who go to that jail. Any time you have a breach of security, such as bringing in contraband, that taints everything," said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County Distri...

On October 20, 2014, Billy Louis Nelms Sr., 54, of Los Angeles, California, was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison . Nelms worked as an immigration officer in the Fraud Detection and National Security unit, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security ’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). One of his duties involved investigating marriage fraud on applications for an immigration benefit. Nelms was taking bribes from Cambodian immigrants, who were present in the United States without legal status, in exchange for immigration benefits. He managed to defraud not only the government, but also the immigrants who bribed him. Nelms promised them permanent legal status, in exchange for a bribe of $5,000 in cash. Instead, the stamps he used on the immigration documents in question provided their bearers with only a temporary legal status in the United States. Nelms attempted to cover up his crimes by using stamps that belonged to other government officials, or us...

On October 24, 2014, In Seon Lim, a former contracting official for the U.S. Department of the Army, was sentenced to four years in prison by the Honorable Leonie M. Brinkema in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Lim, 48, of Fairfax Station, Virginia, pled guilty to three offenses in July 2014 : conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services wire fraud; bribery; and attempting to interfere with and impede tax laws. Lim accepted more than $490,000 in benefits from companies, in exchange for helping them win favorable treatment and millions of dollars in federal government contracts. He is one of 18 individuals and one corporation, Nova Datacom, LLC, to plead guilty to federal charges in the largest domestic bribery and bid-rigging scheme in the history of federal contracting cases. Participants in the scheme stole over $30 million in government money through inflated and fictitious invoices. Lim admitted that he used his official position to enrich himself...

The Department of Justice announced that on October 17, 2014 two Connecticut men pleaded guilty to bribery charges , admitting that they participated in a scheme to obtain confidential, internal law enforcement documents and information from a former Special Agent with the FBI in White Plains, New York. Johannes Thaler, 51 and Rizve Ahmed, aka “Caesar,” 35, admitted to bribing Robert Lustyik, who was at the time serving as a Special Agent with the FBI’s counterintelligence squad. According to the guilty plea, between September 2011 and March 2012, Thaler and Lustyik solicited bribes from Ahmed. In return for the bribes, Lustyik promised to provide internal law enforcement documents and other confidential information to Ahmed. Ahmed, a native of Bangladesh, wanted to access confidential law enforcement information, including a Suspicious Activity Report, pertaining to a Bangladeshi political figure who was affiliated with a political party opposing Ahmed’s views. Ahmed admitted that he...

A U.S. immigration officer was sentenced on October 3, 2014 to two and a half years in federal prison, for accepting bribes in the form of cash and egg rolls from applicants seeking citizenship and green cards. Mai Nhu Nguyen, 48, served with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Santa Ana for eight years. She pleaded guilty to receiving bribes as a public official between July 2011 and May 2013. As an immigration service officer, Nguyen had the authority to approve or deny immigration applications. In one of the instances of bribery, Nguyen called a vendor to order 300 egg rolls. She then told an immigration applicant to pay for the $150 food order and deliver it to her workplace. Once the task was performed, Nguyen proceeded to approve the immigrant's paperwork. Continue reading:  http://www.examiner.com/article/department-of-homeland-security-official-took-bribes-cash-and-eggrolls