US Veterans Official Pleads Guilty to Bribery, Fraud in $2Mln Scheme - DoJ

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - A former official with the US Department of Veterans Affairs has pleaded guilty of demanding and accepting bribes from three for-profit schools in exchange for enrolling disabled military veterans and facilitating payments of more than $2 million in federal benefit payments, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

"For years, James King and his criminal associates defrauded an important VA program that provides education services to military veterans who served our country," Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said in the release on Friday.

From 2015 through 2017, King, using his position as a program counselor for the VA Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment unit, demanded and received cash bribes from the owners of Atius Technology Institute, Eelon Training Academy, and School A, a school purporting to specialize in physical security classes, the release explained.

The Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment unit provides disabled US military veterans with education and employment-related services, according to the release.

READ MORE: DoJ Charges Five Ex-Venezuelan Officials in Energy Contract Bribery Scheme