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IGs to Join Committee Coordinating Oversight of Federal Funds Used for Coronavirus Response

Michael E. Horowitz, Chair of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency 
(CIGIE), and Glenn A. Fine, Chair of CIGIE’s Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), 
announced today additional Inspectors General (IG) to serve as members of the PRAC. The new members 
are:

•   Mitchell L. Behm, Acting Inspector General, Department of Transportation
•   Mark Bialek, Inspector General, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
•   Kathy A. Buller, Inspector General, Peace Corps
•   Rae Oliver Davis, Inspector General, Department of Housing and Urban Development
•   Phyllis K. Fong, Inspector General, Department of Agriculture
•   Susan S. Gibson, Inspector General, National Reconnaissance Office
•   Allison C. Lerner, Inspector General, National Science Foundation
•   Jay N. Lerner, Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
•   Paul K. Martin, Inspector General, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
•   Michael J. Missal, Inspector General, Department of Veterans Affairs
•   Tammy L. Whitcomb, Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service
•   Special Inspector General for Pandemic Oversight (when nominated by the President and confirmed 
by the Senate)

In addition, Inspector General Martin was named as the Committee’s Vice Chair. Mr. Martin has 
served as Inspector General at NASA for the past 10 years and prior to that served at the 
Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General for 12 years, the last 7 as Deputy Inspector 
General.

These Inspectors General, who were designated as members of the PRAC pursuant to Section 15010 of 
the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), oversee agencies that will 
disburse funds made available under the CARES Act or are otherwise involved in the Coronavirus 
response.

Today’s designated Inspectors General join the PRAC alongside Mr. Fine and 8 other Inspectors
General specifically identified as PRAC members by the CARES Act:

•   Sandra D. Bruce, Acting Inspector General, Department of Education
•   Joseph V. Cuffari, Inspector General, Department of Homeland Security
•   Scott S. Dahl, Inspector General, Department of Labor
•   Richard K. Delmar, Acting Inspector General, Department of the Treasury
•   J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
•   Christi A. Grimm, Acting Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services
•   Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General, Department of Justice
•   Hannibal “Mike” Ware, Inspector General, Small Business Administration

Consistent with the CARES Act, all Inspectors General serving on the Committee will continue to 
perform their Inspector General duties.

“This additional group of Inspectors General brings a wide range of expertise to the Committee. 
Working closely with all 75 Federal Inspectors General, the Committee will seek to ensure that the 
funds intended to support individuals, workers, healthcare professionals, businesses and others 
affected by the pandemic are used efficiently, effectively, and in accordance with the law,” said 
PRAC Chair Fine.

The CARES Act provides over $2 trillion in emergency federal spending to address the economic 
impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, and establishes the PRAC and several other oversight 
mechanisms to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in the use of these funds.

The PRAC will promote transparency and support independent oversight of the funds provided by the 
CARES Act and two prior emergency spending bills, the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response 
Supplemental Appropriations Act and the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. In addition to its 
oversight responsibilities, the PRAC is tasked with supporting efforts to “prevent and detect 
fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement [and] mitigate major risks that cut across program and 
agency boundaries.”

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CIGIE is an independent entity established within the executive branch by the Inspector General Act 
and includes 75 statutorily created federal Inspectors General. Its mission is to address 
integrity, economy, and effectiveness issues that transcend individual government agencies and to 
aid in the establishment of a well-trained and highly skilled workforce in the Offices of the 
Inspectors General. For more information about CIGIE and the Inspector General community, please 
visit https://www.ignet.gov/. To find and read reports from the federal Ins  ectors
General, please visit https://oversight.gov and follow @OversightGov on Twitter.

If you have additional questions, please contact:

Dwrena Allen
DOD OIG Spokesperson
dwrena.allen@dodig.mil

Stephanie Logan
DOJ OIG/CIGIE Spokesperson
Stephanie.logan@usdoj.gov

Alan Boehm
CIGIE Executive Director
alan.boehm@cigie.gov

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a 16-count indictment against a former Acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a former subordinate for their alleged theft of proprietary software and confidential databases from the U.S. government as part of a scheme to defraud the U.S. government.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Timothy J. Shea for the District of Columbia, DHS Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari and Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) made the announcement.

The indictment charges Charles K. Edwards, 59, of Sandy Spring, Maryland, and Murali Yamazula Venkata, 54, of Aldie, Virginia, with conspiracy to commit theft of government property and to defraud the United States, theft of government property, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.  The indictment also charges Venkata with destruction of records.

According to the allegations in the indictment, from October 2014 to April 2017, Edwards, Venkata, and others executed a scheme to defraud the U.S. government by stealing confidential and proprietary software from DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), along with sensitive government databases containing personal identifying information (PII) of DHS and USPS employees, so that Edwards’s company, Delta Business Solutions, could later sell an enhanced version of DHS-OIG’s software to the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at a profit.  Although Edwards had left DHS-OIG in December 2013, he continued to leverage his relationship with Venkata and other DHS-OIG employees to steal the software and the sensitive government databases.

The indictment further alleges that, in addition to stealing DHS-OIG’s software and the sensitive government databases, Venkata and others also assisted Edwards by reconfiguring his laptop so that he could properly upload the stolen software and databases, provided troubleshooting support whenever Edwards required it, and helped him build a testing server at his residence with the stolen software and databases, which contained PII.  As further part of the alleged scheme, Edwards retained software developers in India for the purpose of developing his commercial alternative of DHS-OIG’s software.

The indictment is the result of an ongoing investigation by DHS-OIG and USPS-OIG and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Victor R. Salgado of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney David B. Kent of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice.  Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/Celebrating150Years.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) joins the Social Security Administration (SSA) OIG and other Federal agencies on March 5, 2020 for National “Slam the Scam” Day, to raise public awareness of government imposter telephone scams across the United States.

SSA OIG is engaging other Federal agencies and the private sector to promote a National “Slam the Scam Day” as a National Consumer Protection Week initiative.  On March 5, SSA will participate in a USA.gov-hosted Twitter chat, and a Facebook Live event at Social Security.

Both DHS OIG and SSA OIG would like to warn all Americans to hang up on all government imposters, and ask them to spread the word to family and friends.  These pervasive scams—in which callers pretend to be government employees to mislead victims into providing personal information or making payments—have become a scourge on the American public.  The Federal Trade Commission recently reported victims lost nearly $153 million to government imposter scams last year.

DHS telephone numbers have been used in the past as part of a telephone spoofing scam targeting individuals throughout the country.  Spoofing is the deliberate falsifying of information transmitted to a caller ID display to disguise an identity.  The perpetrators of the DHS-related scam represent themselves as employees with “U.S. Immigration” or other government entities.  They alter caller ID systems to make it appear that the call is coming from the DHS HQ Operator number (202-282-8000) or the DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) number (202-401-1474).  The scammers obtain or verify personally identifiable information from their victims through various tactics, including by telling individuals that they are the victims of identity theft.  The scammers also pose as law enforcement or immigration officials and threaten victims with arrest unless they make payments to the scammers using a variety of methods.  The scammers have also emailed victims from email addresses ending in “uscis.org.”  Many of the scammers reportedly have pronounced accents.

As a reminder, DHS never uses its HQ Operator or CRCL number to make outgoing calls of this nature. Individuals receiving phone calls from these numbers should not provide any personal information.  It continues to be perfectly safe to place calls to the DHS HQ Operator and CRCL numbers and DHS officials may continue to be contacted by dialing the DHS HQ Operator number.

DHS OIG takes these matters very seriously.  Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of this telephone spoofing scam is urged to call the DHS OIG Hotline (1-800-323-8603) or file a complaint online via the DHS OIG website www.oig.dhs.gov.  You may also contact the Federal Trade Commission to file a complaint and/or report identity theft

For more information regarding SSA OIG’s National “Slam the Scam” day activity you can visit SSA OIG

For more information visit our website, www.oig.dhs.gov