by Ben Vernia | August 11th, 2016
On August 10, the Department of Justice announced that a former agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has agreed to pay $40,000 to resolve claims that he submitted false claims for sick pay. According to DOJ’s press release:
Douglas daCosta of Livermore, California, has agreed to pay $40,000 to resolve allegations that he submitted false claims to the government for paid sick leave when he worked as a federal law enforcement agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Justice announced today.
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The United States alleged that daCosta submitted the false requests while working as a criminal investigator for the ATF’s San Francisco field division in 2009. From January 2009 until his retirement in June 2009, daCosta claimed more than 80 days of paid sick leave for which he was not eligible, according to the government’s allegations. Specifically, the United States alleged that daCosta falsely represented to his supervisors that he was undergoing extensive treatment for cancer, going so far as to provide a forged letter from a physician to support his claims. The government contends, however, that daCosta did not have cancer and was not undergoing any such treatments. Additionally, at the same time that daCosta was feigning illness to receive paid sick leave from the government, he was working in the private sector, according to the government’s allegations.
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