August 11, 2011 - When it rains, it rains some more.
We just wrote about the continued vacancy for a new head of SIGAR, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
Then we found this NBCWashington.com article HERE which was in a review by an NBC commentator about political and government fraud. He reported that Cheryl Ferrara, a former SIGAR staffer (we assume an investigator) in SIGAR who resigned in March after informing them of this case, and she was also sentenced by the US Attorney General for "falsifying residency documents and bank accounts to get a friend hired in her office and for personally spending about $20,000 in funds from the national Association of Inspectors General, for which she was treasurer." However, the wrong doing was performed apparently BEFORE she joined SIGAR and when she was sentenced, she was required to notify SIGAR. I called SIGAR and confirmed that she left them in March after informing them of her settlement.
HERE is the complete US Attorney's press release on this sentencing. You really need to read this to understand how complex the issue was. Ferrara was clearly not a typical objective auditor type but used those skills to falsify records and also steal $20,000 while a Treasurer of the Association of Inspector Generals.
Below is an extract from THIS article on the SIGAR staffer by Tom Sherwood at NBC Washington:
"Last week came a little-noticed news release from U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen.
Cheryl Ferrara, a former deputy assistant inspector general, was sentenced for falsifying residency documents and bank accounts to get a friend hired in her office and for personally spending about $20,000 in funds from the national Association of Inspectors General, for which she was treasurer.
Ferrara received a year of probation and a suspended sentence of 180 days, and she was fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service.
And, of course, the 46-year-old defendant lost her job and is no longer treasurer of the national association. She also had to resign from her most recent government job as a special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.
She also must notify federal agencies that granted her previous security clearances (you know what that likely means), as well as inform “the appropriate agencies” that granted her certified public accountant license.
In short, to foolishly help a friend fake documents and bank accounts to get a job, and for violating her fiduciary duties as treasurer, her career and life are in tatters.
The case is one of any number of lower-level crimes of government workers pursued and prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
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