He Confessed to $13,000. He’d Taken $487,000.

A VA travel clerk emailed management admitting he stole about $13,000. The OIG investigation put the real figure at roughly $487,000 in travel reimbursements over four years.

Minor administered travel reimbursements at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and created fraudulent travel claims in the names of at least three other employees, diverting the payments into bank accounts he controlled.

In an email to VA management he admitted stealing about $13,000. The VA OIG investigation showed the theft actually ran from December 2015 to September 2019 and totaled upwards of $487,000.

That gap — a confession at under 3% of the real take — is why the OIG audits instead of asking.

"he stole upwards of $487,000 between December 2015 and September 2019"
— U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Case file in the VA Fraud case files — part of the VA Fraud record. Cases are published as the courts decided them; amounts are stated as the Justice Department states them (billed, stolen, or ordered in restitution, as labeled).