>the FBI official had “unauthorized social engagements outside of FBI Headquarters involving drinks, lunches, and dinners.”
Peter Strozk, was this you?
Ex-NASA exec sentenced for stealing $350K in COVID relief funds — he spent some of the money on a hypoallergenic French bulldog
Published: July 16, 2021 at 11:13 a.m. ET
"Prosecutors say ==Andrew Tezna used the money to pay off credit card debts, a pool for his house and a Disney Vacation Club
membership timeshare.==
Andrew Tezna had worked for NASA for six years and had risen to become a senior policy director making $181,000 a year when he pleaded guilty to stealing COVID relief funds
The sky was the limit.
A former senior NASA executive has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing over $350,000 in COVID-19 relief funds and using the money to pay off his car loan, credit card debt and to buy an expensive purebred dog, prosecutors said.
Andrew Tezna, 36, of Leesburg, Va. had admitted he submitted fraudulent applications to the Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program for businesses that didn’t exist, and even filed for unemployment benefits for his mother-in-law, who was retired.
Tezna pleaded guilty to bank fraud in April in a deal reached with prosecutors ahead of him being criminally indicted. He has also been ordered to pay $285,000 in restitution.
‘This defendant used the identities of others to carry out a brazen scheme in which he exploited taxpayer-funded programs during the global pandemic for his own personal benefit.‘— Raj Parekh, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Prosecutors say Tezna, who earned $181,000 as a policy director for the space agency, had gone into the pandemic with a mountain of debts, and soon began fraudulently applying for government relief programs to pay them off, even though he wasn’t entitled to the financial aid.
Among the bills prosecutors said he paid off were an $18,447 car loan for a Toyota Sienna minivan; $48,961 on a loan for a swimming pool he had built at his house; $159,700 in credit card debt and $6,450 to a dog breeder for a hypoallergenic French bulldog. He also used the money to pay $5,727 for his Best Buy credit card and to cover the cost of a Disney Vacation Club membership timeshare, according to court documents.
They said he had worked for NASA for six years, but as a result of his guilty plea, lost that job and had recently been working as a loader at a Lowe’s Home Improvement Center."
More/sauce:https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ex-nasa-exec-sentenced-for-stealing-350k-in-covid-relief-funds-he-spent-some-of-the-money-on-a-hypoallergenic-french-bulldog-11626448386?mod=personal-finance
Unbelievable. Just freaking unbelievable.