Former research specialist gets two years probation
A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee was sentenced to probation for his role in a scheme that ripped off more than $500,000 from the government through fake travel vouchers.
Former research specialist William Korn, 53, was sentenced to two years of probation and will have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars from fraudulent travel expense claims, according to a media release.
He is the fourth ICE worker to plead guilty for taking part in similar schemes with James Woosley, the agency’s former acting director of intelligence.
Korn started taking advantage of ICE’s voucher system in October 2008, when he worked on temporary assignment away from his home in Arizona. Woosley approved Korn to receive a stipend while working in the District. Over 14 months, Korn turned in more than a dozen travel vouchers for hotel and meal expenses.
But he wasn’t staying in a hotel. Instead, Korn had agreed to live with Woosley and Lateisha Rollerson, Woosley’s assistant and girlfriend, in a house in Alexandria.
He used some of the excess stipend to pay expenses for the entire home and pocketed the rest.
In total, Korn paid about $30,000 to Woosley and Rollerson and kept $20,000 for himself.
Woosley and Rollerson have also been charged for this and other cases of fraud, totaling more than $500,000 in government losses.
Woosley was sentenced earlier this month to 20 months in prison, and Rollerson received a 10-month sentence.
Previous ICE workers Ahmed Abdallat and Stephen Henderson have also been sentenced for conducting similar schemes with Woosley and Rollerson. Abdallat, 64, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison, and Henderson, 62, received three months in prison.
In a letter to the court, Korn wrote, “I could have stopped the conversation at any time and I did not. I knew I was doing wrong and I failed to take action,” according to documents.
Korn served in the U.S. Army for 20 years, during which he received multiple medals and the rank of master sergeant. He then began a 14-year career with ICE.
