A top former White House official is heading to court for allegedly doctoring time sheets on the taxpayers’ dime.
Former Director of White House Services Andrea Elaine Turk will appear in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Thursday to face theft of government property charges. FBI agents claim Turk manipulated time sheets to pad her $85,000 salary by roughly $11,000 over the course of a year, according to court documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation and first reported by Washington’s NBC Channel 4.
Turk managed about 15 switchboard operators at the White House, and illegally inflated one of her employee’s overtime hours. That employee then returned the cash to Turk, according to the FBI. The criminal complaint refers to the employee, who cooperated with the FBI, only as “Employee A.”
“Employee A” claimed Turk told her in a private 2012 meeting she was in financial trouble, and needed the employee’s help. When Turk later added extra hours to Employee A’s timesheet, the employee said she understood the money was intended to go to Turk. The employee told investigators she was reluctant to participate in the scheme, but Turk was “very aggressive and persistent in pressuring Employee A to agree to do as Turk instructed,” the complaint said.
Turk told investigators she was experiencing money problems and borrowed funds from her subordinate. The employee inflated the pay 10-20 times from mid-2012 until mid-2013.
Turk worked as White House Director of Information Services from 2009 to 2012, then as White House Services Director in 2012 until she was fired in August 2013.
The Office of Counsel to the president referred the matter to outside law enforcement in September 2013, shortly after Turk was terminated.
Public defender Carlos Vanegas is representing Turk, according to court documents.
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