Conviction on $1.5M fraud of VA benefits

[Ret10Echo]

There's a special place in hell for guys like this

Blythewood Man Convicted of Massive Government Fraud

Contact Person: Bill Day (803) 929-3000

Columbia, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Bill Nettles stated today that Dennis Paulsen, age 45, of Blythewood was convicted of stealing more than $1.5 million from the United States Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Social Security Administration following a seven-day jury trial in federal court in Columbia. Mr. Nettles stated the maximum penalty Paulsen faces is imprisonment for up to 20 years and fines of $500,000, along with forfeiture of the more than $1.5 million. Senior United States District Judge Margaret B. Seymour of Columbia presided over the trial and will impose sentence after she has reviewed the presentence report which will be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.


Despite his feigned claims of impairments and presenting himself in a wheelchair to his doctors, Paulsen lived in a non-handicap accessible residence and was able to ride his motorcycle and jet skis plus play baseball and golf on a regular basis. In 1999, Paulsen met his ex-wife at the gym where he exercised and worked training others. In 2004, Paulsen sold their 5,000 square foot house for more than half of a million dollars and moved from Virginia to Blythewood, SC.

Story from DOJ

[Sohei]

He is a "poser" of the worst kind. I can think of way more appropriate penalties to pay for his crimes than those imposed upon him.

[Dean Jarvis]

I've always been amused by how the private citizen will always be held accountable for any wrong doing, which is how it should be, but should you be a government worker the same standards just don't apply.

Once the investigation of these two women that held high level jobs at the VA was concluded and found guilty they never had to pay back any of the overcharges in their fabricated moving expense, in excess of $100, 000.00 nor did they serve any jail time. They were just reassigned to lower level jobs in the VA. Most likely scheduling appointments.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest...130000109.html

[Sohei]

Originally Posted by Dean Jarvis

I've always been amused by how the private citizen will always be held accountable for any wrong doing, which is how it should be, but should you be a government worker the same standards just don't apply.

Once the investigation of these two women that held high level jobs at the VA was concluded and found guilty they never had to pay back any of the overcharges in their fabricated moving expense, in excess of $100, 000.00 nor did they serve any jail time. They were just reassigned to lower lever jobs in the VA. Most likely scheduling appointments.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/latest...130000109.html

There are those whose hypocrisy knows no limits...one of which is the VA.

The VA is one of the most disturbing of all federal agencies.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Dean Jarvis

They were just reassigned to lower level jobs in the VA. Most likely scheduling appointments.

LOL; if I recall one of them lost their SES status and was "demoted" to GS-15. Rough.

[Pete]

Is there a cut off for union membership?????

48.9% of Union Members Worked for Government in 2015

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/tere...overnment-2015

[Badger52]

If one digs into the numbers it's probably less than that (not a huge amount but certainly less). Unions get to report how many people are in their "bargaining unit" which is why many who are not dues-paying members get counted. The downside is that often non-managerial people who want nothing to do with the union get impacted - and even operational decisions get impacted - by the latest union case of "panties in a twist over something."

Anecdote: In an issue raised over re-writing a job description once (as a non-manager type) I once had the local union president (who was a national VP) tell me straight out in front of the whole room that they really didn't care about white-collar technical folks because they thought "you make enough money as it is." (Sound familiar?) Their interest was theoretically in the blue-collar guy, who actually probably made more than I did.

They have made themselves largely irrelevant which is why many states have gone to laws that protect their workers from having dues deducted if they choose not to be a member. Don't know about elsewhere, but that REALLY got the unions' panties in a twist in my state.