Investigative Reports

United States Attorney David Metcalf announced that Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $629,043 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by failing to contribute the required percentage of resources in exchange for AmeriCorps funds the county received.

A machinist journeyman based in Sunrise, Florida, was sentenced July 23, 2025, in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, to 18 months of probation and was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $90,900 after pleading guilty to one count of felony theft, as a result of money received from fraudulent COVID-19 pandemic-related loan applications. Our investigation found that the employee submitted an application containing false statements to the Small Business Administration to qualify for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan. As a result, the employee received $91,000 to which he was not entitled. The employee also submitted an application containing false statements and information for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, resulting in receipt of an additional $9,194 to which he was not entitled.

Two Amtrak Police Department (APD) senior officers received written counseling on July 23, 2025, as a result of our investigation. We found that one officer violated company policy by having on-duty APD officers transport her to various locations on two days while she was off-duty. In addition, we found that the second officer violated company policy by using his company-issued APD vehicle to go to his father’s residence while on-duty and off-duty.

Three individuals were separately sentenced in U.S. District Court, Central District of California, for their roles in a scheme that defrauded health insurance companies—including approximately $1.15 million in fraudulent billings to Amtrak’s health care plan—through a California-based substance abuse treatment center, Paragon Recovery LLC.

Stephen Reeder, an Ohio resident and Paragon’s program director, was sentenced on June 6, 2025, to two years of probation and ordered to forfeit $42,675. Reeder paid patient brokers William Leonard and Casimiro Bojorquez, both California residents, illegal kickbacks in exchange for unlawfully brokering patients to treatment facilities owned and operated by Paragon.

Leonard was sentenced on July 18, 2025, to five years of probation and ordered to forfeit $234,000. Bojorquez was sentenced on April 11, 2025, to time served, three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $176,000.

SEC Investigative Summary 25-0015

We found an energy company failed to decommission operations as required within one year after its Federal oil and gas leases expired.

Our investigation determined that between 2022 and 2023, two Amtrak Supervisors based in Philadelphia and several other employees violated company policy by not swiping out on a Time Entry Device (TED) after their shifts and, subsequently, swiping out and immediately back in when they returned to work. This resulted in the recording of significant consecutive TED hours. The employees used this swiping protocol to inaccurately claim a full eight hours of regular pay in Amtrak’s timekeeping system, instead of correctly recording seven hours of regular pay and one hour of Code 29 pay (hours paid but not worked) to which they were actually entitled.

We also found that one of the supervisors collected additional Code 29 hours to which he was not entitled, in violation of the Infrastructure Management and Construction Services’ (IMCS) internal hours‐of‐service policy. We further found that an Engineer, based in Philadelphia, violated the internal hours‐of‐service policy by allowing and encouraging employees to claim Code 29 pay after working only 14 hours, which resulted in the company paying for hundreds of unnecessary Code 29 hours. The supervisors were terminated after their disciplinary hearings in July 2025. They are not eligible for rehire.

We found that a former Research Archeologist at a non-profit organization embezzled over $35,000 of BOR funds for personal expenses.

An Amtrak Passenger Conductor based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty on June 24, 2025, in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, to one count of wire fraud involving the fraudulent submission and subsequent receipt of $52,500 for two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and one Economic Injury Disaster Loan. The employee’s spouse pleaded guilty on May 20, 2025, to one count of wire fraud involving the fraudulent submission of three PPP loans and the subsequent receipt of $53,845. Our investigation found that the couple provided fraudulent documents and made false representations to obtain the loans totaling $106,345 to which they were not entitled.

AmeriCorps OIG initiated this investigation after receiving a referral from OIG’s Office of Audits. The referral alleged that, in 2019, Delaware’s Governor's Commission on Community & Volunteer Service, an AmeriCorps State and National Program grantee also known as Volunteer Delaware, was not providing adequate oversight of its subrecipient, Delaware’s Division of Parks and Recreation (DPR). AmeriCorps OIG found that Volunteer Delaware did not provide adequate monitoring of DPR and that DPR falsely certified AmeriCorps members’ education awards even though service hours had not been performed, were outside the scope of the grant, were adjusted after service, or were otherwise questionable such as having duplicate entries or excessive hours in a day. The OIG also found that DPR shortened the terms of service for some members who exited the program before completing their original approved terms of service, which allowed those members to collect education awards to which they otherwise would not have been entitled. The case resulted in a disallowance of $111,369.

An assistant passenger conductor based in Kansas City, Missouri, resigned from his position on June 23, 2025, as a result of our investigation. We found that he violated company policies by engaging in a sex act with a passenger while in the performance of his official duties—as the train was in operation. He allegedly extorted the passenger for a sexual favor. During an interview, the former employee admitted to receiving oral sex from the passenger but claimed that it was consensual. He also admitted that he previously engaged in sexual activity with other passengers on three or four other occasions. The former employee is not eligible for rehire.