Former HUD Assistant Inspector General Indicted for Concealing Procurement Fraud Scheme
A seven-count indictment was returned yesterday charging a former Assistant Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General, with engaging in a scheme to conceal material facts, making false statements and falsification of records.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting Assistant Director in Charge John P. Selleck of the FBI’s Washington Field Office and Michael K. Atkinson, Inspector General of the Intelligence Community made the announcement.
According to the indictment, between early 2012 and mid-2016, Eghbal “Eddie” Saffarinia engaged in a scheme to conceal material facts, including the nature and extent of Saffarinia’s financial relationship with a personal friend who was the owner and chief executive officer of an information technology company in Virginia. During a period in which Saffarinia received payments and loans from his friend totaling $80,000, Saffarinia disclosed confidential internal government information to his friend and undertook efforts to steer government contracts and provide competitive advantages and preferential treatment to his friend’s company. Saffarinia also failed to disclose this financial relationship and another large promissory note on his public financial disclosure forms.
Moar:https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-hud-assistant-inspector-general-indicted-concealing-procurement-fraud-scheme