Jeff Neely, who became famous thanks to a photo of him in 2010 sipping champagne in a Las Vegas casino bathtub, pled guilty in a San Francisco federal court late Tuesday to submitting a false claim for reimbursement that his room charge was for official business.
The government accused the former regional administrator for the General Services Administration of submitting “a claim to be reimbursed for lodging expenses at M Resort Spa Casino Las Vegas which he knew was not incurred for official business,” according to the plea agreement.
“He also admitted he submitted and caused GSA to pay additional false claims during his tenure, that he improperly failed to claim annual leave on certain dates, and that these acts resulted in losses to GSA exceeding $5,000.
“He also agreed that these acts constitute an abuse of his position of trust with GSA, and that he obstructed justice during GSA’s investigation of his offenses by submitting a false document and falsely certifying it as true.”
Neely admitted to one count of making a false claim. He agreed to repay the government $8,000. He faces a June 30 sentencing hearing in which he could be imprisoned for up to five years, be fined for up to $250,000 and subjected to three years of supervised release.
Neely’s photo made him the poster boy for widespread media reports about official travel abuses by federal officials. The Washington Post broke the story based on a report by the federal housekeeping agency’s inspector general.
Mark Tapscott is executive editor of the Washington Examiner.
