The Department of Justice announced on Thursday the arrest of two men, one a VA contract officer, the other the owner/manager of Veteran Ability LLC, on charges laid out in a 31 count indictment handed down by a grand jury.

The arrests stem from wire fraud and bribery investigations carried out by the FBI, United States Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General, Small Business Administration Office of the Inspector General, and General Services Administration Office of the Inspector General.

Arrested were 72-year-old Richard Vaughan, a VA contract officer, and 47-year-old Donald Garner, owner of Veteran Abilities LLC.

Vaughan was responsible for awarding and managing VA contracts that included Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business “set-aside” contracts and authorizing the “Purchase Card Program” which was authorized to spend approximately $600,000 a year in micro-purchases for “non-standard supplies and services” for the VA.

Garner, as owner of his LLC, carried out government contracts for services such as snow removal and housekeeping the government, including the VA in Anchorage.

“From June 2015 through January 2017, Garner paid at least $29,235 in bribes to Vaughan in exchange for, among other things, preferential treatment in awarding certain VA contracts and purchase card orders and certifying payments on deficient invoices submitted by Garner for work that was unnecessary or never performed. The scheme resulted in Garner receiving the benefit of payments of approximately $725,226.56 under a VA snow removal contract, $776,272.00 under a VA housekeeping contract, and purchase card payments in the amount of $194,330.40,” according to US Attorney Bryan Schroder of DoJ.

The duo faces a sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine with three years of supervised release if convicted of the most serious crimes in the indictment.

  arrests, bribery, contracts, donald garner, indictments, richard vaughan, va, veteran abilities, veteran affairs, wire fraud