Corrections Officer Stole from Inmate’s CashApp, Applied for COVID Loans for Fake Business, DOJ Says; Top Illinois COVID-19 Official Paid Her Assistant $1 Million in Emergency Funds, and other C-Virus related stories
Corrections officer stole from inmate’s CashApp, applied for COVID loans for fake business, DOJ says
A corrections officer at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta pled guilty to stealing money from an inmate and applying for a COVID-19 Paycheck Protection Program loan for a business that did not exist, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
Justice officials said Andy Steven Johnson was a member of the Special Investigative Services team at the U.S. Penitentiary.
He pled guilty to stealing money from an inmate’s CashApp account, as well as using a fake business to fraudulently apply for a PPP loan.
According to USDOJ, Johnson exploited his role at the prison to victimize inmates and steal from them.
“Johnson committed brazen acts of theft and fraud. Rather than conducting himself with integrity, he sought to personally gain, stealing from an inmate and attempting to fraudulently obtain pandemic relief funds meant to help those with legitimate hardships. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General will aggressively pursue justice for victims of these kinds of shameless acts,” Sandra D. Barnes, Deputy Assistant Inspector General for the Investigations Division at the DOJ OIG, said.
Officials described Johnson’s actions as starting in 2021, when he “seized a contraband mobile phone from an inmate.” Instead of processing the phone, he opened CashApp on the device and transferred $300 to his own account, according to USDOJ.
The funds were later transferred from CashApp to Johnson’s personal bank account.
Separately, Johnson also defrauded the PPP, according to prosecutors. —>READ MORE HERE
Top Illinois COVID-19 official paid her assistant $1 million in emergency funds
The government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed an astonishing number of businesses into bankruptcy . But there’s no denying that there have been some winners in the federal government’s $5 trillion federal spending spree . That figure included $745 billion in direct aid to state and local governments.
Just ask Amy Gentry, an executive assistant to Illinois Emergency Management Agency Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau, who billed the agency more than $1 million since 2020 before abruptly resigning last week. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that between February and August of this year alone, Gentry accounted for some $240,000 in billings, twice the amount earned by her boss. The revelation that an executive assistant had billed the agency as much as $60,000 in a single month appears to have been a source of embarrassment for Illinois officials.
In response to the Sun-Times report, Kevin Sur, spokesman for Tate-Nadeau’s agency, announced that Gentry was leaving and a state employee previously hired for the role would return to her $84,000-a-year post. Normally, a political assistant billing the state $156 an hour to tap relief funds would be quite a scandal. But this is Illinois, where the bar is set a bit higher. Four of Illinois’ last ten governors have landed in prison, and the former House Speaker is set to go on trial.
Perhaps because of this, Tate-Nadeau and Gentry have decided to clam up. Both refused to be interviewed by the Sun-Times, no doubt hoping the story blows over. The Sun-Times doesn’t appear interested in going away, however. “It sure sounds like a grift to us,” the paper’s editorial board commented Tuesday.
Indeed
The story also demonstrates a gloomy reality: Congress’s $5 trillion spending spree has been riddled with fraud and abuse from the start. Precisely how much money the feds have lost due to fraud since the pandemic began is unknown. Cases of fraud are too numerous to enumerate. But just a year into the pandemic, it was estimated that $200 billion in unemployment benefits went to fraudsters — “more than triple the official government estimate of $63 billion based on the 10% pre-pandemic fraud rate.” —>READ MORE HERE
Follow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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More than 15,000 Illinois homeowners stayed in their homes thanks to pandemic aid. That money has run out.
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