John Beale, Hero or Villian?

A top executive from the Environmental Protection Agency is likely heading to prison after defrauding the federal government out of nearly $1 million.  He concocted the truly bizarre and elaborate scheme to avoid doing his job while still raking in a generous salary.

The EPA’s highest paid former employee, John Beale, will be sentenced in a federal court on Wednesday after spending more than ten years taking months off work to do “intelligence work for the CIA in Pakistan,” when he was actually kicking back, reading, riding his bike and relaxing at his vacation home in Cape Cod, NBC News first reported.

Beale, who served as a senior policy adviser in the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, pled guilty in September to defrauding the federal government out of nearly $900,000 since 2000. Beale retired from his post in April after learning that he was the subject of a federal investigating for defrauding the government by ditching work for months at a time, while still collecting his $200,000 salary (more than EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, his immediate boss.)

I'll admit that what he did was wrong.. I think he SHOULD have lost his job.  But jail time and pay the money BACK?!  No WAY, his IDIOT bosses should be on the hook for THAT!!

Anyone who is the 'supervisor ' of people making $200K or more a year, SHOULD be smart enough to pick up the PHONE, and do some calling and asking about their employees being 'spies'!

And last but NOT least. how scary is it, that someone supervising people at that level, on YOUR tax dollars, WASN'T smart enough to make some inquiries?  I couldn't care less if this was in private industry, but WE paid both their salaries out of the OVER taxation of OUR salaries!
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A Pissed Off but  Schteveo