The administration that never had a scandal just got hit with a doozy.
Charles Edwards, who served as Obama’s Acting Department of Homeland Security Inspector General, just got indicted.
Corrupt Officials
Edwards served as Obama’s acting IG for the DHS from 2011 to 2013.
His duties in that role were to root out government corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse.
As it turns out, Edwards was the one trying to steal government secrets.
Along with this former assistant, Murali Yamazula Venkata, Edwards has been charged with conspiracy to commit theft of government property, theft of government property, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
Additionally, Venkata has been charged with destroying records.
The report on Justice.Gov stated:
“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.”
So, immediately after leaving the administration, Edwards appeared to have exploited his contacts within the agency to defraud the United States government, as this scheme went on immediately after he left the Obama administration.
Will This Hurt Joe?
Joe Biden has become very fond of saying his administration never had a whisper of a scandal.
Well, I would say a former official trying to steal government property and using it to steal identities is a pretty big scandal.
How could this have possibly gone on for more than two years in the administration unrecognized?
This may be one of those questions we need to take to Biden personally because we know the mainstream media will never touch him on it.
But, based on how Joe is doing these days, he may not ever remember who Edwards is.