One federal employee allegedly stole $54,000 in taxes owed the government. Another was accused of not inspecting meat products for public safety. A third pocketed charitable contributions of $5,000, authorities said. They and four other present or former federal employees in Chicago were charged Tuesday with a variety of job-related crimes, ranging from clever scams to simple thefts, according to indictments announced by U.S. Atty. Fred Foreman. He estimated the thefts totaled more than $350,000.
”Taking care of a problem in our back yard,” Foreman said in summing up the indictments detailed at a press conference.
The indictments involved seven federal departments and agencies, including the Social Security Administration, Postal and Internal Revenue Services, the Departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development and the General Services Administration.
Of the seven cases cited in the crackdown, the biggest loss involved a Social Security benefit authorizer who allegedly approved a series of fraudulent checks totaling $124,000 to four friends.
The friends in turn gave a portion of the money to the authorizer, identified in mail fraud charges as Dorothy Jean Steward, 48, of 8024 S. Luella Ave. She remains on the government payroll.
The four friends, none a government employee, also were charged in the indictment with mail fraud.
They were identified as Gloria Walker, 44, and Rita Mays, 34, both of 8401 S. Colfax Ave.; Donald Gooch, 45, of 8541 S. Dante Ave.; and Grace Briscoe, 52, of 8910 S. Hermitage Ave.
In another case, a veteran postal worker, Alberta T. Billups, 65, of 641 S. Ashland Ave., was accused of collecting $107,000 in job disability benefits over a 20-year period by falsely claiming to be disabled and unemployed.
Former IRS employee Norma Jean Vazquez, 42, of 5920 N. Kenmore Ave., allegedly embezzled 103 money orders worth $54,417 entrusted to her by taxpayers between late 1987 and early 1989.
Others named in Tuesday`s indictments were identified as Salvatore DeGrazio, 42, of 7247 W. Touhy Ave.; Gwendolyn Lang, 35, of 516 Buckley Ct., University Park; Virgil E. Griffin, 52, of 9225 S. Saginaw Ave.; and James Williams Jr., 41, of 4208 S. Vincennes Ave.
