Investigative Reports

A Chicago man pleaded guilty and was sentenced in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, to possession of cannabis on January 24, 2022. Andre Jordan was previously arrested on February 8, 2021, after agents found him to be in possession of approximately 2.2 pounds of cannabis after he deboarded an Amtrak train in Chicago. Jordan was sentenced to 9 months in prison.

Amtrak terminated the contract of a contractor based in Camarillo, California, on January 21, 2022, following the issuance of our investigative report. Our investigation found that the contractor stole two train horns from the Beech Grove Maintenance Facility and later sold them to individuals he met on various train-related internet sites and online forums. In addition, Amtrak required the contractor to remove all equipment from Amtrak property and barred the contractor from entering any Amtrak property in the future.

The official embezzled $95,001 by making personal purchases.

We substantiated allegations that a leaseholder failed to make timely royalty payments for minerals (gravel) a subcontractor removed from a tribally owned gravel pit.

We substantiated that an unknown individual fraudulently represented themselves as a DOI official and misdirected $64,097 of the official’s pay.

We substantiated allegations that a USGS employee fraudulently received donated leave, valued at $4,710, through the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program.

We substantiated allegations that an oil and gas company failed to pay Federal mineral royalties, and ONRR recovered a total of $1,903,261.

DOL-OIG Investigations Newsletter Vol. 37 covering October 1 - November 30, 2021

A Chef in the Ops Transportation Department based in New York City was terminated on December 28, 2021, after an administrative hearing. The former employee failed to report two drug-related arrests and one drug-related conviction to the company. Company policy requires employees to notify the company as soon as practicable after an arrest, or within 48 hours after the arrest. The employee was also untruthful with us when asked about the arrests during our investigation.

An Amtrak electrician based in Chicago, Illinois, was terminated from employment on December 28, 2021, following his administrative hearing. Our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by failing to report his prior guilty pleas and conviction on his initial application and background check form and also failed to disclose his alcohol-related arrest while employed with the company. Additionally, our investigation found that the employee violated company policy by engaging in outside employment while on medical leave and lying to our agents during his interview.

An Amtrak road foreman based in LaJunta, Colorado, was terminated from employment on December 21, 2021, after our investigation found that the former employee violated company policies by failing to report a March 2021 arrest for driving under the influence as required by company policy and lying to our agents during her interview. In addition, the employee used her position in a supervisory role to direct other employees to lie and provide false statements to our agents. Three additional employees were issued final disciplinary warnings and received suspensions of one week without pay.

We did not substantiate a Complainant’s allegations of whistleblower retaliation against the National Park Service.

Kevin Nelson, a resident of New York, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, on December 16, 2021, to two years’ imprisonment and ordered to pay $287,805 in restitution to Amtrak. He pleaded guilty to Aggravated Identity Theft for his involvement in an Amtrak eVoucher scheme on August 30, 2021. Nelson and his co-conspirators used stolen credit card and personal information to make unauthorized purchases of Amtrak tickets and then cancelled or exchanged those tickets for eVouchers. Subsequently, they sold the fraudulently obtained eVouchers on the internet. The approximate loss to Amtrak from the scheme was $450,000.