EPA's 'secret agent' con man pleads guilty -- then pleads the Fifth

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

A high-ranking federal Environmental Protection Agency official who admitted to cheating the government out of nearly $1 million by pretending to be a secret agent, smugly refused to answer questions from lawmakers Tuesday, invoking the Fifth Amendment – even though he’s already pleaded guilty.

 

John Beale, who got himself a cushy four-day workweek for years by telling his bosses he had a one-day-per-week gig at the CIA, refused to answer even the most basic questions from Rep. Darryl Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Although Issa said his committee hauled Beale, 64, in not to “ridicule” him, but to ensure that the fraud he committed wasn’t being duplicated by other government employees, Beale calmly refused.

 

“I will be asserting my Fifth Amendment privilege this morning,” Beale, who also lied to superiors about serving in Vietnam, told a visibly frustrated Issa.

 

Beale’s trickery, which began more than a decade ago, cost taxpayers an estimated $886,000, much of it in the form of unearned pay over some 13 years. Under his plea agreement, he must pay that money back, as well as an additional $507,000, and serve 30-37 months in prison. His lawyer told the panel that his plea agreement did not require him to cooperate with lawmakers, though Issa said he would seek to make it a condition of acceptance of the plea and sentencing by U.S. District Judge Ellen Segel Huvelle.

 

Inspector General Arthur Elkins, whose office unraveled Beale’s long-running deception, called it an “egregious and almost unbelievable case.” He testified that in addition to bilking the government for salary, Beale also had a longstanding requirement that he fly first-class due to a dubious back injury. One flight, to London, cost taxpayers $14,000, when a coach ticket would have cost just $1,000, according to Elkins.

 

Elkins said Beale was able to get away with the fraud for so long because of "an absence of even basic internal controls at the EPA." But Elkins was never able to directly question Beale because inspectors general, who serve as auditors of federal agencies, cannot compel former federal employees to talk. Beale retired just before the probe began.

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Slime always tries to find a way to slide away...