A former high-level official at the Environmental Protection Agency, who pretended to work for the CIA to avoid the office, said he was motivated by a sense of excitement and the rush of getting away with something.
John C. Beale, a former EPA senior policy advisor, explained his motivations for the first time in a federal courtroom Wednesday before he was sentenced to more than 2 ½ years in prison for stealing nearly $900,000 in taxpayer funds.
U.S. District Judge Ellen S. Huvelle said Beale’s deception had “made a mockery of working for the federal government.”
Beale, 65, admitted in September that he had skipped out on work for years by telling a series of supervisors, including top officials in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, that he was doing top-secret work for the CIA. He was paid for a total of 2 ½ years of work he did not perform since early 2000 and received about $500,000 in bonuses he did not deserve, according to his plea agreement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James E. Smith said Beale ripped off the government in “notorious, historic fashion” and had become the poster child for problems with the federal government workforce.
He lied about contracting malaria to obtain a reserved parking space that cost the EPA $8,000 over three years. He took trips to visit his family in Los Angeles for which he charged the government more than $57,000.
http://wapo.st/J5F1qF
