Ex-DA’s office, DOJ worker gets probation in $56,000 thefts
A former employee of the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office and Oregon Department of Justice has been sentenced to three years of probation, 250 hours of community service and full restitution after stealing more than $56,000 from three federal agencies, prosecutors said Thursday.
Bruce A. Endicott, 34, was sentenced Tuesday in Portland by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones for the thefts from the U.S. departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and and Health and Human Services, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Endicott, 34, pleaded guilty in June to one count of theft of government funds. His plea agreement included an admission of conduct over a three-year period supporting all six counts of his indictment.
According to court records and the government’s sentencing memorandum, Endicott began receiving service-connected disability benefits from the VA in 2005, following three years of Navy service in San Diego.
In June 2012, Endicott filed an additional VA claim for Individual Unemployability benefits, claiming he was unemployment unable to seek employment due to his service-connected disabilities, including mental and physical impairments.
Endicott also submitted a statement to the VA in February 2013 while employed by the Oregon Department of Justice under a second Social Security number, that stated he had not worked int he past year. and was awarded additional benefits. He was instructed to notify the VA of any changes in employment status.
Endicott left the Oregon Department of Justice in December 2013 and began working for the Deschutes County DA’s Office, failing once again to notify the VA of his employment, prosecutors said.
After leaving that job in May 2014, he applied for welfare benefits through the Oregon Department of Human Services, using his second Social Security number, and again claiming to have no income.
Endicott failed to disclose to Oregon DHS that he was receiving about $2,700 per month in VA benefits. Bsed on Endicott’s false statements and concealments, Oregon DHS awarded him Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance to Needy Family (TANF) benefits.
In February 2015, Endicott submitted a statement to the VA regarding his Individual Unemployability claim, in which he failed to disclose his former employment with the DA’s office and falsely asserting that he had not worked in the past year, prosecutors said.
As a result of his false statements and concealments, between June 2012 and October 2015, Endicott received approximately $47,947 in VA benefits, $5,996 in SNAP benefits, and $2,770 in TANF benefits to which he was not entitled, prosecutors said.
In their argument for jail time, the government noted his ongoing and repeated fraud, his purchase of a $65,000 truck instead of paying past-due child support and restitution, the burden of his repeated false claims on the VA and Oregon DHS systems, and the detrimental effect his fraud had on truly deserving veterans whose benefits were delayed due to his conduct,
Judge Jones warned Endicott that despite receiving probation, further wrongdoing would result in a much harsher sentence. As a condition of his probation, Endicott was ordered to participate in a mental health treatment program.
The case was investigated by the Criminal Investigations Division of the VA Office of Inspector General, Oregon DHS, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) Office of the Inspector General, Office of Investigations and prosecuted by Helen Cooper, Special Assistant United States Attorney, as part of a partnership between the SSA Office of the General Counsel, Seattle Region and the United States Attorney’s Office in Portland.
