The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General will announce charges on Wednesday regarding a fraud and corruption scheme at VA hospitals in Florida, authorities said.
Law enforcement and VA officials did not reveal details of the scheme but described for the Washington Examiner a lengthy investigation centered on hospitals in Miami and West Palm Beach.
“We’ve been tracking this extensively,” a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the investigation told the Washington Examiner. “I can’t tell you precisely how we learned about it, but your assumption is correct that someone in Florida alerted us to what was going on.” The official did not say whether the alert came in via the VA’s whistleblower tip line or by more direct means.
Both federal and VA inspector general agents conducted the investigation, the official said.
Today at 2 p.m., authorities will announce charges at a West Palm Beach news conference, the official said. Speakers will include Ariana Fajardo Orshan, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and from the VA, David S. Johnson, assistant inspector general for investigations, and David Spilker, special agent in charge of the Office of Inspector General.
Neither the Miami nor West Palm Beach VA responded immediately to the Washington Examiner for comment.
Another Florida VA facility has been the site of investigations within the past year. In October, a Vietnam veteran shot himself on the premises of the Bay Pines VA facility. It was the sixth suicide on the facility’s grounds in six years, and the 35th on VA space in the past two.
