Former Va Director Sentenced To Prison For Theft

[carlie]

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/az/press_release...(Wilkinson).pdf

[bob_abad]

Thanks for sharing this one.

I am sure there are more similar cases(corruption, fraud, scams, $$ bribery, scratch my back=>i will scratch your back..) happening in various VARO's around the country which includes Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, & others. Wondering how they(sr. VA officials & VSOs) are behaving there in DC, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Jersey, Cleveland, Tampa, & New York area? Curious..

[gp747]

well they should be investigating some of these state run, taxpayer paid service offices too.

the money is going somewhere and it sure is not going to help veterans win their claim. when i called a couple of times to check on my claims every one was off to florida, on my dime and my case was going nowhere.

i had to set a fire under their asses.

one time i called and they did not know who the hell i was.

Edited August 26, 2009 by skunk (see edit history)

[bob_abad]

This thing really bothers me..

> if their IT as they politically brag is so efficient, why don't they have an 'Expense Tracking' application system to get flagged sooner?

> wonder if they have a stats which VARO office has the most approved claims?

> which %VSO(DAV, etc..) has been engaged in influencing VA for faster claim approval?

> why don't they have a system to track which VA rater or DRO approves the most?

[john999]

There was a VA psychologist in Tampa running a facility for homeless vets. He was getting money to do this and he was also charging the vets rent. He was a well known thief tied into other thieves in local government. The county commission of Hillsborough County was once considered a racketeering enterprise by law enforcement.

[LarryJ]

She still owes $300K, and she is supposed to pay that back as soon as she gets out.

yeah, right, when pigs fly.

[broncovet]

This is the "tip of the iceberg". Time after time, VA pretends that things like this are "isolated incidents" and time after time, we find out these abuses are widespread.

If it can happen in Arizona, are we supposed to believe it cant happen in St. Petersburg, or Cleveland, or NY or any other RO?

The VA has no "checks and balances" system in place to prevent this thievery...it should have been detected and stopped long ago...long before it reached hundreds of thousands of dollars..or even millions of dollars like the IT fiasco.

Its no wonder why the VA is so stingy at approving our claims and awarding benefits..they are far too busy stealing money and awarding each other bonuses to get down to the business of Veterans claims. There is only so much money..so that $300,000 HAD to come from somewhere, and I think it comes from legitimate Veterans claims being denied in order to award bonuses and to allow for this corruption to continue.

[magician2000]

:D This director is at what, the GS-15 or 16 level. Making 5 to 10 times more then most of us are living on, or maybe more. And that is not enough. They have to steal from the ones that they were trusted with serving.

[Pete53]

Thieves are thieves and liars are liars. I really don't have much tolerance for either. As far as someone who works for the VA stealing they should get 5 times what they would give a Veteran that they caught cause they violate a trust.