A judge Wednesday sentenced a senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official who bilked the agency out of nearly $900,000 and pretended to be a CIA agent to 32 months in prison.
John C. Beale, 65, pled guilty in September to charges of felony theft of government property. Beale soaked the EPA for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent travel vouchers and illegal bonuses over the course of 13 years.
Overall, he spent two and a half years absent from work while still being paid. He flew first class and stayed in five-star hotels in clear contradiction of agency policies, and he remained on payroll for over a year after a retirement party on a Potomac dinner cruise.
Along the way, he falsely claimed to be an agent for the CIA and a Vietnam War veteran.
?John Beale spent a decade telling one fantastic lie after another to steal our tax dollars,? U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen said in a statement Wednesday. ?At some point, his commitment to public service warped into a sense of entitlement fueled by greed. Through this prison sentence John Beale will pay the price for his years of deception.?
Beale?s strange saga flabbergasted and outraged EPA investigators and members of Congress.
http://freebeacon.com/fake-epa-spy-sentenced-to-32-months-in-jail/
