Another investigator for the agency that conducts security background checks for 90 percent of federal employees has pleaded guilty to falsifying reports. Thomas S. Fitzgerald, 48, a former special agent for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is the seventh background investigator to be convicted since 2008 for falsifying security clearances, prosecutors said.
Fitzgerald, of Crofton, could face up to 18 months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines, prosecutors said.
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“Background investigations are an important tool for safeguarding classified information and our national security,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. “These prosecutions demonstrate how seriously we take the integrity of the background investigation process.”
As part of his plea deal, Fitzgerald admitted that he intentionally misrepresented facts in more than two dozen background investigations between March 2005 and May 2006. On numerous reports, Fitzgerald had represented that he had interviewed a source or reviewed a record.
All these reports were used by the agencies to determine whether the applicants were suitable for jobs that had access to classified information, for positions that involve national security, or for obtaining security clearances.
The Federal Investigative Services was required to reopen numerous investigations at a cost to the government of $107,000. Fitzgerald agreed to pay that amount in restitution to his former employer.
This is one of several cases prosecuted by the U.S. attorney for D.C. in the past three years involving false representations by background investigators and record checkers working on federal background investigations. Six background investigators and two record checkers previously were convicted.
Other investigators have been charged in Maryland and Connecticut. Some were OPM employees, and some were contractors to CACI, U.S. Investigation Services and Kroll, according to court records.
In one case, the deception was discovered after a boss found cut-out copies of FBI and Prince George’s County police verification stamps in an investigator’s desk drawer. Authorities found several background checks in which a copy of an FBI stamp was used to indicate that the subject had no criminal history. The stamp was placed on the document with tape.
The suspect told federal investigators that he took shortcuts because his workload had increased from about 10 cases a week to about 35 cases a week.
Federal Investigative Services has about 7,300 investigators and processed about 2 million investigations last year.
