A federal judge recently sentenced a California-based Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) contracting official who accepted two vacations from a contractor to five months of house arrest.
U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. could have sentenced Anthony Castaneda to up to two years behind bars and fined him $250,000 for accepting a prepaid $2,250 theme park trip for him and his family in 2010, and a $1,440 vacation in 2008, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). England ordered Castaneda to forfeit the value of the 2010 vacation and pay a $2,000 fine last week, but the VA only released the information Tuesday.
Castaneda took the vacations from construction contractor Jacobo Tadeo Herrera while Castaneda “was in a position to influence the award of construction contracts,” the DOJ said. The DOJ did not say whether Herrera’s business ultimately won the contracts. Castaneda and his family traveled to the unnamed theme park for five days in 2010.
Herrera pleaded guilty to “providing a gratuity to a public official” and was sentenced to three years of probation in December, compared to Castaneda’s five months of house arrest.
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