The former chief of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intelligence office has been charged with embezzling more than $180,000 in a phony travel voucher scheme.
James M. Woosley, who stepped down as the ICE deputy director of intelligence in Washington last year, has been charged by information in D.C. federal court, an indication that a plea deal is in the works. A hearing has not been scheduled.
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“This is the first step in resolving this matter for Mr. Woosley,” said his attorney, William C. Brennan Jr.
Woosley, 48, was suspended last year as part of the investigation into a travel voucher and kickback scheme.
Four other people, including two intelligence analysts, have already pleaded guilty.
Lateisha M. Rollerson, 38, of Bowie, pleaded guilty in the embezzlement scheme last month. She faces a likely sentence of 18 to 24 months in prison.
According to charging documents, Woosley first met Rollerson and “developed a close, personal relationship,” before eventually getting her a job at ICE headquarters as an intelligence research specialist.
In 2009, he was named acting director of the intelligence office, and she became his personal assistant. They lived together in Virginia, and she often used money from the scheme to pay both of their personal bills, charging documents said.
Rollerson admitted she created $300,000 in false hotel receipts and travel vouchers for employees, including Woosley, and his adult son, who worked for ICE as a contractor, documents said.
The travel voucher fraud scheme began about June 2008, when Stephen Henderson, an ICE contractor who was detailed on temporary duty to Washington, asked Rollerson to make bogus hotel receipts for a travel voucher to pay back a travel advance from the company for which he worked. Woosley approved the request, documents said.
Henderson, 61, pleaded guilty in January.
The loss to taxpayers from Henderson’s fraudulent travel vouchers was approximately $54,000. Henderson kicked back $21,799 to Woosley and Rollerson, court documents say.
In October, another employee involved, 64-year-old Ahmed Adil Abdallat, of El Paso, Texas, pleaded guilty to two counts of misuse of a diplomatic passport and one count of conversion of public money. He was sentenced in Texas to one year in prison.
William J. Korn, an intelligence research specialist, pleaded guilty in January to defrauding the government of more than $50,000.
