Financial Fraud: James King Sentenced For Million Bribery Scheme

<h2>Department of Veterans Affairs Official Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for &dollar;2 Million Bribery Scheme Involving Program for Disabled Military Veterans<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>A former U&period;S&period; Department of Veterans Affairs &lpar;VA&rpar; official was sentenced today for demanding and receiving bribes from three for-profit schools in exchange for enrolling disabled military veterans in those schools and facilitating over &dollar;2 million in payments from the VA using the veterans’ federal benefits&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<div class&equals;"mh-content-ad"><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;pagead2&period;googlesyndication&period;com&sol;pagead&sol;js&sol;adsbygoogle&period;js&quest;client&equals;ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; crossorigin&equals;"anonymous"><&sol;script>&NewLine;<ins class&equals;"adsbygoogle"&NewLine; style&equals;"display&colon;block&semi; text-align&colon;center&semi;"&NewLine; data-ad-layout&equals;"in-article"&NewLine; data-ad-format&equals;"fluid"&NewLine; data-ad-client&equals;"ca-pub-9162800720558968"&NewLine; data-ad-slot&equals;"1081854981"><&sol;ins>&NewLine;<script>&NewLine; &lpar;adsbygoogle &equals; window&period;adsbygoogle &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&rpar;&period;push&lpar;&lbrace;&rcub;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;<&sol;script><&sol;div>&NewLine;<p>Assistant Attorney General Brian A&period; Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division&comma; U&period;S&period; Attorney Jessie K&period; Liu for the District of Columbia&comma; Special Agent in Charge Matthew J&period; DeSarno of the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s Criminal Division and Special Agent in Charge Kim Lampkins of the VA Office of Inspector General &lpar;OIG&rpar;&comma; Mid-Atlantic Field Office made the announcement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>James King&comma; 63&comma; of Baltimore&comma; Maryland&comma; previously pleaded guilty to an Information alleging one count of honest services and money&sol;property wire fraud&comma; one count of bribery of a public official&comma; and one count of falsifying records to obstruct an investigation&period; King was sentenced by U&period;S&period; District Judge John D&period; Bates of the District of Columbia to serve 132 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release&comma; and to pay &dollar;155&comma;000 in restitution to the VA&period; Earlier this week&comma; Judge Bates sentenced three school owners and employees who admitted to bribing King&period; Albert Poawui&comma; the owner of Atius Technology Institute&comma; was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison and ordered to pay &dollar;1&period;5 million in restitution&period; Sombo Kanneh&comma; Poawui’s employee&comma; was sentenced to serve 20 months in prison and ordered to pay &dollar;113&comma;000 in restitution&period; Michelle Stevens&comma; the owner of Eelon Training Academy&comma; was sentenced to serve 30 months in prison and ordered to pay &dollar;83&comma;000 in restitution&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;James King and his associates exploited an important VA program that provides valuable services to our disabled <a class&equals;"wpil&lowbar;keyword&lowbar;link" href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fraudswatch&period;com&sol;category&sol;military-scammer&sol;amp&sol;" title&equals;"military" data-wpil-keyword-link&equals;"linked" data-wpil-monitor-id&equals;"397">military<&sol;a> veterans&comma;” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This prosecution once again demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to hold accountable those who seek to defraud government programs for their own personal enrichment&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;James King blatantly betrayed his responsibility with the VA to provide job and educational counseling to disabled military veterans who turned to him for help&comma;” said U&period;S&period; Attorney Liu&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Instead of helping our veterans&comma; he lined his own pockets by taking bribes to send them to three sham schools that brought them only pain and frustration&period; Today’s sentencing holds him accountable for this breach of trust and this waste of taxpayer money&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;King tried to use his position to enrich himself at the expense of veterans who have honorably served our country&comma;” said FBI Special Agent in Charge DeSarno&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Today&&num;8217&semi;s sentencing makes it clear that such activity by anyone affiliated with the U&period;S&period; government will not be tolerated&period; The FBI will work closely with our partners to continue to aggressively investigate allegations of corruption&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are pleased to see Mr&period; King&comma; a person who abused his position of trust and the veterans he was supposed to serve&comma; sentenced today&comma;” said VA OIG Special Agent in Charge Lampkins&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This sentence sends a clear message that VA OIG is dedicated to prosecuting those that take advantage of VA programs that are intended to help our veterans and their families&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to King’s admissions made in connection with his plea&comma; the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment &lpar;VR&amp&semi;E&rpar; provides disabled U&period;S&period; military veterans with education and employment-related services&period; VR&amp&semi;E program counselors advise veterans under their supervision which schools to attend and facilitate payments to those schools for veterans’ tuition and necessary supplies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>From 2015 through 2017&comma; King&comma; using his position as a VR&amp&semi;E program counselor&comma; demanded and received cash bribes from the owners of Atius Technology Institute &lpar;Atius&rpar;&comma; Eelon Training Academy &lpar;Eelon&rpar;&comma; and School A&comma; a school purporting to specialize in physical security classes&period; King facilitated over &dollar;2 million in payments to Atius&comma; over &dollar;83&comma;000 to Eelon&comma; and over &dollar;340&comma;000 to School A&comma; all in furtherance of King’s separate agreements with the respective school owners to commit bribery and defraud the VA&period; King agreed with Poawui and Stevens that they would each pay him&comma; in cash&comma; seven percent of the money they received from the VA in exchange for King steering veterans to their schools and facilitating VA payments&period; King similarly accepted cash payments from the owner of School A&comma; who is identified as Person A in the Information&comma; in exchange for the same official acts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In order to maximize the profits from their fraud&comma; all three school owners sent King and other VA officials false information about the education being provided to veterans&comma; and King facilitated payments to all three schools knowing this information was false&period; King also admitted to repeatedly lying to veterans under his supervision in order to convince them to attend Atius&comma; Eelon&comma; or School A&period; For example&comma; King falsely instructed one veteran that&comma; unless he attended School A&comma; his VR&amp&semi;E program benefits would &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;lapse&period;” King insisted that this veteran enroll in School A despite the veteran’s protests that he could not engage in physical security work due to a physical disability&comma; and despite the fact that the veteran had enrolled in the VR&amp&semi;E program to pursue his dream of becoming a baker&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In early 2017&comma; the VA initiated a fact-finding inquiry into Atius based on complaints by students as to the quality of education at the school&period; In August 2017&comma; after King became aware of the inquiry&comma; he created a falsified site visit report and instructed Poawui to send it to another VA official&comma; all in an effort to obstruct the VA’s inquiry into Atius&period; In January 2018&comma; King attempted to convince Poawui to lie to the grand jury about the purpose of the bribe payments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>King’s plea is the result of an ongoing investigation by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the VA Office of Inspector General&period; Trial Attorney Simon J&period; Cataldo of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section&comma; former Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney and current Fraud Section Trial Attorney Sonali D&period; Patel and Assistant U&period;S&period; Attorney David Misler of the U&period;S&period; Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia are prosecuting the case&period;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Bribery SchemeFinancial Fraud