{"id":1217249,"date":"2022-01-14T18:50:33","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T23:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1217249"},"modified":"2022-01-14T18:50:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T23:50:37","slug":"former-dhs-acting-ig-under-obama-pleads-guilty-to-attempting-to-defraud-u-s-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-dhs-acting-ig-under-obama-pleads-guilty-to-attempting-to-defraud-u-s-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Former DHS Acting IG Under Obama Pleads Guilty To Attempting To Defraud U.S. Government"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-dhs-acting-ig-under-obama-pleads-guilty-to-attempting-to-defraud-u-s-government%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1217249&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>An Obama-era bureaucrat at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing government software and databases.<\/p>\n<p>Charles K. Edwards schemed to steal confidential information from the government, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/former-acting-inspector-general-us-department-homeland-security-pleads-guilty-scheme-defraud\">report<\/a> from the Justice Department (DOJ). Edwards worked for the DHS from 2008 to 2013. He was the acting Inspector General for the department from 2011 to 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards\u2019 theft came after his time at the DHS. From 2015 to 2017, he stole software and confidential government data from the DHS for his company Delta Business Solutions Inc. in Maryland. This information helped Edwards\u2019 company develop a case management system that it could sell to the government.<\/p>\n<p>According to Fox News, \u201c[Edwards] resigned from the DHS OIG in 2013 amid a Senate investigation into \u2026 whether he had delayed investigations and softened reports, claims he denied.\u201d At the time, The Washington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/homeland-security-inspector-general-who-was-under-probe-steps-down\/2013\/12\/16\/0aeac5ae-66c8-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html\">reported<\/a>, \u201cWhistleblowers asserted Edwards and his top staff pushed to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/blogs\/federal-eye\/wp\/2013\/07\/02\/senate-panel-investigating-inspector-general-for-homeland-security\/\">change findings<\/a> in reports and delay investigations. Others accused him of retaliating or threatening to retaliate against staff who resisted him. Other claims included that he used staff to do personal work for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Post also noted that Edwards was already under investigation for allegeldy trying to soften reports \u201cto keep from embarrassing the Obama administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very disturbed that false allegations have been made against me,\u201d Edwards said after a Senate investigation was launched. \u201c[B]ut more importantly, I am very concerned that this matter may negatively impact the important oversight work of the Office of Inspector General \u2026 I will defend myself against these personal attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Edwards pleaded guilty in a district court in D.C. to \u201cconspiracy to commit theft of government property.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A second defendant pleaded not guilty to the same charges. Murali Y. Venkata, an information technology specialist who worked with Edwards, was also charged. Both Edwards and Venkata were charged with conspiring to steal government property, stealing government property, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and aiding and abetting. Venkata was additionally charged with destruction of government records, to which he also pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards will be sentenced later, and the DOJ did not disclose how long of a sentence he will face. The report noted, \u201cA federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The DHS, and its leadership, has come under fire in the past year for its handling of the border crisis. In August, Republican Chip Roy (R-TX) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/breaking-top-republican-calls-for-impeaching-biden-and-dhs-chief-over-border-crisis\">called<\/a> for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached in response to staggering statistics on border encounters recorded in July 2021. Roy told The Daily Wire, \u201cOver the past several months, President Biden and Sec. Mayorkas have blatantly and consistently refused to do their constitutional duty to take care that the immigration laws be faithfully executed, as required by Article II, endangering countless American and foreign lives in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Obama-era bureaucrat at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing government software and databases. Charles K. Edwards schemed to steal confidential information from the government, according to a report from the Justice Department (DOJ). Edwards worked for the DHS from 2008 to 2013. He was the acting Inspector General &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1217249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}