Over two years after drawing the ire of Congress about conference spending by the General Services Administration, ex-GSA official Jeff Neely was indicted by a grand jury for fraud, accused by the feds of submitting false expense reports and making false statements to investigators about his travel.
It was in 2010 that Neely led a GSA conference in Las Vegas which cost the agency over $800,000, ultimately sparking investigations by Congress and the feds - and outrage over photos like this of Neely living the high life in a Vegas hotel room hot tub:
Credit: Jamie Dupree
Credit: Jamie Dupree
While the 2010 trip by Neely to the M Resort Spa and Casino in Vegas prompted outrage, it also led federal prosecutors to bring these charges, accusing Neely of submitting expense forms that were " false, fictitious, and fraudulent," saying Neely knew the expenses were "not incurred for official business."
The indictment also charges Neely with filing false travel claims on two other occasions; "If convicted, the defendants face a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment, and a fine of $250,000 for each violation," the Justice Department said on Thursday evening.
In April of 2012, Neely took the Fifth Amendment and refused to testify about the GSA conference and questions about his travel and spending while he was the Regional Commissioner and Acting Regional Administrator for GSA’s Public Buildings Service in the western part of the U.S.
The federal indictment charges Neely with seeking false reimbursement for personal travel and expenses on trips to Las Vegas, Long Beach, California, and to both Guam and Saipan.
"The indictment further alleges that, when GSA employees questioned him about these expenses, Neely falsely represented that the costs were incurred for official government business," read a Justice Department statement.
You can see the Neely indictment at http://www.justice.gov/usao/can/news/2014/docs/NEELY%20-%20Indictment.pdf
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